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THE    WIDOWHOOD 
OF   QUEEN   VICTORIA 


^,Zne&ri 


THE  WIDOWHOOD 
OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 


BY 

CLARE   JERROLD 

AUTHOR  OF 

'THE  EARLY  COURT  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA,"  "THE  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

QUEEN  VICTORIA,"  "  THE  STORY  OF  DOROTHY  JORDAN," 

"STORIES  OF  THE  KAISER."  ETC. 


NEW    YORK 
G.    P.   PUTNAM'S  SONS 

1916 


Printed  in  Great  Britain. 


Jf 


PREFACE 


HAVING  dealt  with  "  The  Early  Court  of  Queen 
Victoria,"  and  "  The  Married  Life  of  Queen  Victoria," 
it  seemed  appropriate  to  round  off  this  critical  bio- 
graphy of  the  late  Queen  by  describing  the  second 
half  of  her  life,  that  which  was  spent  in  widowhood. 
This  volume  gives  a  presentation,  not  of  events  of 
history  or  politics,  but  of  Queen  Victoria's  influence 
on  those  events,  of  her  sorrows  and  joys,  her  mistakes 
and  successes.  She,  "  a  poor,  helpless  woman,"  to  use 
her  own  words,  had  suddenly  to  furnish  herself  with 
a  support  by  the  help  of  which  she  could  gather  again 
into  her  own  hands  the  affairs  of  State;  and  the  sup- 
port she  chose,  though  natural  to  one  of  her  tem- 
perament, brought  about  some  curious  results. 

Her  great  affection  for  all  things  Teutonic,  her 
unwavering  determination  to  work  "  for  a  strong 
Prussia  and  a  united  Germany,"  may  not  have  been 
without  their  effect  upon  the  German  mind  when  the 
war  lords  were  laying  their  plans  for  the  conquest  of 
Europe. 

CLARE  JERROLD. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  FAGE 

I  THE   QUEEN    ALONE  .  .  .  .  ,  '         .  3 

II  A    PRINCE    IN    BONDAGE    .  .  .  .  .  .  15 

in  THE  QUEEN'S  CHILDREN  .          .  '  *          .25 

IV  A   STRONG    PRUSSIA  .  .  .  .  .  .41 

V  FAMILY    GAINS   AND    LOSSES        .  .  .  .          6O 

VI  ROYAL    SECLUSION.  ......          70 

VII  SUBJECTS    IN    REVOLT        ....  .   '         .          89 

VIII  TWO    PRIME    MINISTERS    ......       Io6 

IX  THE   BELOVED   GERMANY  .  .  .  .  .130 

X  FOR    MONEY,    MONEY'S    WORTH  ....       147 

XI  THE   WIDOW    IN   THE    HIGHLANDS         .  .  .  .172 

XII  FAMILY   JARS  .  .  .  .  .  .  .187 

PART    II 
IMPERIALISM 

XIII  YACHTS    IN   THE   SOLENT  .....       205 

XIV  QUEEN-EMPRESS       .  .  .  .  .  *-  .214 
XV  A    STRAIN    UPON    LOYALTY             .              .              .              ,              .225 

XVI  ANGER    AND    MORTIFICATION      .....       246 

xvn  "JOHN  BROWN'S  BODY".          .          .          .          .          .273 

XVIII  THE   GERMAN    INVASION  ......       296 

xix  "SHE  OUGHT  TO  BE  WHIPPED"        .         .         .         .311 

XX  GLADSTONE   AGAIN,    ALAS  !.....       323 

XXI  THE   QUEEN    ALIVE    ONCE    MORE  ....       342 

XXII  THE   CROWN    PRINCESS      ......       368 

XXIII  IMPERIAL   GROWTH  ......       384 

XXIV  NEARLY    AN    AUTOCRAT    ......       406 

XXV  THE   APOTHEOSIS    OF   QUEEN    VICTORIA          .  .  .       424 

INDEX  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .417 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

QUEEN   VICTORIA       .......      Frontispiece 

PRINCE   CONSORT   AND   QUEEN   VICTORIA    IN    1860      To  face  page  12 

THE   PRINCE   CONSORT    IN    1 86 1             .             .             .                  „  2O 

QUEEN   VICTORIA    IN    1864           ,             .             .             .                  „  82 
{From  a  fainting  by  Winterhalter) 

W.    E.    GLADSTONE  .             .             .             »             .             .                  „  Io8 

BENJAMIN   DISRAELI            .             .             .   "        .                               „  126 

QUEEN    VICTORIA    IN    1865           ....                  „  132 

KING    EDWARD   VII    AS    PRINCE   OF   WALES    .             .                  „  346 

H.R.H.    THE   PRINCESS    ROYAL     ....                  „  374 

(From  a  painting  by  Winterhalter) 


viii 


PART   I 
THE   GREAT   MISTAKE 


CHAPTER    I 

THE    QUEEN    ALONE 

IN  the  ancient  palace  of  our  kings  a  woman's  heart  lay 
bleeding;  and  to  the  supreme  place  in  birth,  in  station,  in 
splendour  and  in  power  was  now  added  another  and  sadder 
title  of  pre-eminence  in  grief." — W.  E.  Gladstone  at  Man- 
chester, March  1862. 

"  With  Prince  Albert  we  have  buried  our  Sovereign.  This 
German  Prince  has  governed  England  for  twenty-one  years  with 
a  wisdom  and  energy  such  as  none  of  our  kings  have  ever 
shown.  He  was  the  permanent  private  secretary  of  the  Queen. 
If  he  had  outlived  some  of  our  '  old  stagers  '  he  would  have 
given  us,  while  retaining  all  constitutional  guarantees,  the 
blessings  of  absolute  government." — Benjamin  Disraeli,  in 
conversation  with  Count  Vitzthum  von  Eckstaedt. 

WITH  the  death  of  the  Prince  Consort  ended  the 
comfortable  state  of  actual,  though  not  apparent, 
irresponsibility  in  which  Queen  Victoria  had  lived 
since  the  early  years  of  her  marriage.  As  a  girl- 
queen  she  had  found  herself  placed  suddenly  in  a 
position  of  great  power ;  from  the  schoolroom  she  went 
to  the  throne;  from  living  in  a  state  of  absolute  sub- 
ordination she  saw  the  gate  of  the  fairyland  of  seem- 
ing freedom  open  wide,  and,  seizing  her  opportunity, 
she  went  through  quickly  and  shut  the  gate  behind 
her.  When  her  mother  tried  to  follow  the  way  was 
barred  and  the  barrier  was  labelled,  "  No  interference." 

From  the  moment  that  William  IV  changed  this  life 

3 


4     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

for  perhaps  a  better  one  Victoria  openly  showed  the 
strength  of  her  development ;  she  had  at  last  the  oppor- 
tunity of  turning  a  deaf  ear  to  maternal  advice,  she 
could  shake  herself  free  from  what  was  publicly  known 
as  the  Kensington  Camarilla,  could  enjoy  solitude 
and  talk  with  whom  she  would.  These  possibilities 
crowded  upon  her  mind  and  gave  her  the  first  taste  of 
royal  luxury.  "Allow  me,  my  dear  mamma,  to  be 
alone  for  two  hours,"  was  the  first  advantage  she  took 
of  the  new  position,  and  the  last  request  made  as  a 
child  to  her  mother. 

Her  fresh  duties  she  grasped  at  eagerly.  She  read 
dispatches  while  her  maid  was  plaiting  her  hair,  and 
took  a  curious  and  intelligent  interest  in  all  matters 
of  State.  Yet  though  her  outlook,  her  surroundings, 
her  habits  all  were  changed,  there  was  one  thing  which 
remained  the  same  :  she  was  still  at  lessons  under  a 
tutor.  This  tutor  was  the  courtly,  kindly  gentleman, 
Lord  Melbourne,  who  saw  her  every  day  and  ex- 
plained things  with  the  most  direct  simplicity.  To 
his  influence  she  unconsciously  and  quite  willingly 
fell  again  into  bondage. 

It  was  a  different  bondage;  one  which  was  not 
bounded  by  the  four  walls  of  a  room,  by  the  covers  of 
a  lesson  book,  or  by  maternal  solicitude  for  conven- 
tion. Her  interests  were  as  wide  as  her  kingdom,  and 
for  the  time  she  did  not  wish  to  go  beyond.  Her  mind 
was  so  full  of  the  new  lessons  that  independent  thought 
was  impossible,  and  she  deferred  in  all  things  to  her 
preceptor.  She  was  being  educated  in  the  ways  of 
the  world  as  well  as  in  those  of  the  State,  and  her 


THE   QUEEN   ALONE  5 

diary  of  the  period  shows  far  more  evidence  of 
pleasant  gossip  about  people  and  events  than  about 
public  business.  In  the  latter  she  did  as  she  was  told, 
for  the  telling  was  judicious  in  the  extreme. 

In  personal  matters,  however,  the  young  Queen 
could  sustain  an  opinion  of  her  own  unswervingly, 
as  was  evinced  when  the  two  old  gentlemen,  Mel- 
bourne and  Wellington,  thought  it  indelicate  for  a 
young  girl  to  hold  a  military  review  in  Hyde  Park  on 
horseback,  and  combined  to  force  her  to  the  igno- 
minious position  of  the  corner  of  a  carriage. 

"  No,  my  lord ;  no  horse,  no  review,"  was  her  reply ; 
and  there  was  no  review.  The  next  year  there  were 
both  horse  and  review. 

There  were,  on  her  part,  other  determined  refusals 
to  be  guided  by  advice  on  personal  matters  which 
have  already  been  described  in  an  earlier  volume; 
two  of  them  shattered  her  popularity  with  the  aris- 
tocracy. They  were  definite  indications  of  the  line 
she  would  take  in  personal  and  social  incidents  to  the 
end  of  her  long  life;  just  as  her  relations  with  Mel- 
bourne were  symbolical  of  her  attitude  to  the  problem 
of  government,  which,  in  a  curious  way,  remained 
with  her  to  the  end. 

She  was  wilful  enough  when  lovers  came  upon  the 
scene;  yet  when  the  lover  became  the  husband  she 
once  more  hung  up  the  notice  :  "  No  interference !  " 
and  the  notice  was  exhibited  for  many  months,  to  the 
painful  bewilderment  of  Prince  Albert,  who  com- 
plained that  his  little  wife  listened  to  all  that  Mel- 
bourne said,  but  remained  "inattentive  to  the  plans 


6     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

and  measures  proposed  "  and  "  thought  it  unnecessary 
entirely  to  comprehend  them " ; x  in  fact,  that  she 
allowed  herself  to  be  dominated  by  her  adviser.  The 
Prince  set  to  work  to  alter  this,  and  in  course  of 
time  was  able  to  announce  himself  as  the  Queen's 
Permanent  Minister. 

From  that  day  things  went  well  between  the  two 
rulers.  The  Prince  allowed  nothing  to  escape  his 
careful  thought,  and  Victoria  was  as  ready  to  say 
"  Aye  !  "  to  him  as  she  had  been  to  say  it  to  Melbourne. 
Thus  it  was  through  the  remainder  of  her  married 
life,  though  the  Prince  carried  his  peculiarly  German 
ideas  of  royal  responsibility  to  a  pitch  most  discon- 
certing to  the  Queen's  Ministers,  and  succeeded  in 
making  himself  unpopular  with  all  classes.  But  in 
all  difficulties  he  himself  referred  to  his  own  tutor, 
Stockmar,  and  thus  the  ultimate  royal  word  upon  the 
government  of  England  was  in  all  great,  and  often 
in  little,  things  uttered  by  a  German  baron,  whose 
knowledge  of  English  statecraft  was  purely  academic. 
So  the  reactionary  Teutonic  theory  of  the  divine  right 
of  kings  and  the  subservience  of  ministers  was  planted 
upon  the  English  Constitution,  and  for  half  a  century 
enjoyed  a  precarious  existence. 

By  1 86 1  the  Queen  was  in  danger  of  being  spoilt, 
for  she  had  become  autocratic,  and  even  with  her 
hard-working  husband  insisted  upon  a  recognition  of 
her  supreme  position.  She  ruled  her  household  under 
his  guidance  with  a  remarkable  knowledge  of  detail, 
she  ruled  her  children  lovingly  and  yet  with  severity, 
1  Letters  of  Queen  Victoria. 


THE    QUEEN    ALONE  7 

and  she  took  an  intelligent  interest  in  foreign  affairs, 
though  all  royal  action  concerning  them  was  accord- 
ing to  the  Prince's  decision.  Indeed,  her  life  was 
full  without  the  intrusion  of  the  actual  fact  of  govern- 
ing; this  she  was  content  to  leave  to  her  husband,  but 
she  exacted  in  return  the  recognition  that  she  was  the 
real  Sovereign. 

In  the  midst  of  this  somewhat  careless  and  self- 
centred  existence  fell  the  blow  which  cut  like  a 
guillotine  across  her  life. 

During  the  Prince  Consort's  illness  up  to  Decem- 
ber 12,  the  Queen  could  write  to  King  Leopold  a 
good  report :  "  I  do  not  sit  up  with  him  at  night,  as 
it  could  be  of  no  use;  and  there  is  nothing  to  cause 
alarm."  Two  days  later  Prince  Albert  collapsed. 
Thus  in  a  few  hours,  from  comparative  security  and 
belief  in  her  husband's  recuperative  powers,  Victoria 
found  herself  faced  with  the  most  appalling  loss  which 
could  have  befallen  her.  She  had  actually  lost  her 
better  half,  for  it  was  the  half  which  was  the  reality 
of  the  Throne  and  which  helped  her  to  keep  the 
appearance  of  it.  Truly  enough  could  she  say  in 
a  letter  to  Lord  Canning,  who  had  just  lost  his 
wife — 

'  To  lose  one's  partner  in  life  is,  as  Lord  Canning 
knows,  like  losing  half  of  one's  body  and  soul,  torn 
forcibly  away  .  .  .  but  to  the  Queen — to  a  poor 
helpless  woman — it  is  not  that  only — it  is  the  stay, 
support  and  comfort  which  is  lost.  To  the  Queen  it 
is  like  death  in  life  !  Great  and  small,  nothing  was 
done  without  his  loving  advice  and  help — and  she 


8    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

feels  alone  in  the  wide  world.  .  .  .  Her  misery,  her 
utter  despair — she  cannot  describe." 

Into  this  chaos  of  dazed  and  dreadful  feelings 
penetrated  another — that  of  fear;  a  fear  which  was 
engendered  by  the  promised  arrival  of  her  Uncle 
Leopold,  he  who  from  the  time  that  she  was  a  baby 
had  fathered  and  advised  her.  She  feared  that  now, 
being  alone,  she  would  see  him  once  again  assume 
the  tone  of  paternal  dictator;  and  in  the  midst  of  her 
helplessness,  her  sensation  of  being  lost  and  power- 
less, she  felt  that  any  suspicion  of  authority  over  her 
would  be  unendurable  torture. 

If  he  were  dead  she  had  to  go  on  living,  bring  up 
her  children,  rule  her  kingdom,  take  into  her  own 
hands  that  fearful  mass  of  work  for  the  State  with 
which  Albert  had  overwhelmed  himself.  It  was  an 
impossible  task,  and  yet  it  was  her  task.  She  would 
do  it  with  her  dead  husband's  help.  So  ten  days 
after  the  tragedy  once  more  the  barrier,  "  No  inter- 
ference," was  displayed  in  a  letter  to  King  Leopold, 
from  which  I  extract  the  following — 

"  I  am  also  anxious  to  repeat  one  thing,  and  that 
one  is  my  firm  resolve,  my  irrevocable  decision,  viz. 
that  his  wishes — his  plans — about  everything,  his 
views  about  everything  are  to  be  my  law!  And  no 
human  power  will  make  me  swerve  from  what  he 
decided  and  wished — and  I  look  to  you  to  support 
and  help  me  in  this.  I  apply  this  particularly  as 
regards  our  children — Bertie,  etc. — for  whose  future 
he  had  traced  everything  so  carefully.  I  am  also 
determined  that  no  one  person,  may  he  be  ever  so 


THE   QUEEN    ALONE  9 

good,  ever  so  devoted  among  my  servants — is  to  lead 
or  guide  or  dictate  to  me.  I  know  how  he  would 
disapprove  it.  And  I  live  on  with  him,  for  him;  in 
fact,  I  am  only  outwardly  separated  from  him,  and 
only  for  a  time.  .  .  .  Though  miserably  weak  and 
utterly  shattered,  my  spirit  rises  when  I  think  any 
wish  or  plan  of  his  is  to  be  touched  or  changed,  or  I 
am  to  be  made  to  do  anything." 

King  Leopold  probably  answered  this  letter  in 
person,  as  he  was  at  Osborne  directly  after,  but  it  is 
curious  to  note  that  even  before  the  letter  was  written 
he  had  made  his  authority  felt  by  the  widowed  Queen 
in  insisting  upon  her  leaving  Windsor  before  the 
funeral.  Indeed,  the  protest  may  have  been  the  direct 
result  of  his  dictation. 

There  probably  was  something  more  than  a  pander- 
ing to  conventional  custom  in  the  pressure  he  put 
upon  the  Queen  to  go  away  from  the  castle,  for 
though  the  published  reason  for  the  Prince  Consort's 
death  was  gastric  fever  and  congestion  of  the  lungs, 
the  medical  papers  assured  the  public  that  it  was 
typhoid.1  Two  years  earlier  there  had  been  an  alarm- 
ing outbreak  of  typhoid  at  Windsor,  both  in  the  castle 
and  the  town,  and  for  many  years  after  1861  Windsor 
was  known  as  one  of  the  most  insanitary  places  in 
England.  The  castle  itself  had  been  partially  cleared 
of  the  fifty-one  unventilated  cesspools  constructed 

1  The  Lancet  and  Medical  Times  also  said  that  one  bulletin 
issued  on  Dec.  n,  saying  that  the  fever  was  "unattended  by 
any  unfavourable  symptoms,"  was  not  issued  as  written,  but 
that  the  first  word,  "hitherto,"  had  been  struck  out  "by  an 
illustrious  person  with  her  own  hand." 


10    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

beneath  it,  and  of  which  Sir  Jeffrey  Wyattville,  when 
making  his  alterations,  remarked  dubiously,  "  I  hope 
it  is  all  right,  but  there  will  be  a  terrible  stink  one 
day."  But  there  still  remained  a  condition  of  things 
which  was  bad  enough  to  poison  the  whole  royal 
household,  and  so  it  was  proved  when  examination 
of  the  drainage  began  in  January  1862. 

At  Osborne  Queen  Victoria  remained  with  her 
younger  children  while  the  body  of  the  Prince  was 
placed  temporarily  in  a  vaulted  passage  beneath 
St.  George's  Chapel;  and  to  Osborne  the  mourners 
who  came  from  Germany  went  to  see  her  after  the 
funeral,  among  them  being  the  finicking,  fretful  Duke 
Ernst  of  Saxe-Coburg,  who  loved  not  the  sea  and 
suffered  agony  in  his  "  terrible  passage  to  Dover." 
Victoria  wished  to  see  him  on  his  way  to  Windsor, 
so,  to  his  horror,  he  was  not  allowed  to  recover  gently 
on  land,  but  was  at  once  carried  by  express  to  Ports- 
mouth, and  " in  spite  of  the  raging  storm"  was  obliged 
to  embark  on  the  Queen's  yacht,  the  Fire-Queen,  and 
steam  to  Osborne. 

It  was  not  a  pleasant  experience  for  a  middle-aged 
gentleman,  and  it  was  made  worse  by  the  fact  that  to 
ensure  privacy  the  Queen  had  commanded  that  the 
yacht  should  not  enter  Cowes,  but  anchor  in  the  open 
road  below  Osborne  House,  whence  the  Duke  pro- 
ceeded in  a  small  rowing-boat  through  wild  waves  to 
the  landing-place.  It  was  near  the  hour  of  midnight 
when,  frozen  with  cold,  drenched  to  the  skin,  and 
every  emotion  chilled,  the  unfortunate  man  entered 
Victoria's  home.  The  servant  who  opened  the  door 


THE   QUEEN    ALONE  11 

to  him  quickly  disappeared,  and  then  alone  he  went 
to  the  Queen,  who  awaited  him  on  the  staircase — 

'  Thus  I  found  the  unhappy  woman,  bowed  down 
with  sorrow  and  utterly  prostrate  in  the  stillness  of 
the  night,  which  was  interrupted  by  nothing  but  the 
loud  grief  which  deprived  us  both  of  words."  l 

Of  the  funeral  Ernst  wrote :  "  Of  the  Queen's 
family  I  had  none  at  my  side  but  the  Prince  of  Wales. 
The  more  comforting  was  the  sympathy  of  the  Orleans 
family,  hardly  a  member  of  which  had  remained 
absent." 

He  ignores  the  German  princes  who  were  present, 
also  the  fact  that  Prince  Arthur  was  there;  and  as 
Victoria's  son  Alfred  was  away  at  sea  and  little 
Leopold  was  at  Cannes  and  the  Duke  of  Cambridge 
ill,  there  were  no  others  to  go. 

Though  the  Queen  was  not  present  she  had  care- 
fully studied  the  proceedings  and  had  ordered  one 
alteration.  The  proclamation  of  the  Garter-King-at- 
Arms  at  the  graveside  should  have  ended  with  a  refer- 
ence to  her,  "  whom  God  bless  and  preserve  with  long 
life,  health  and  happiness."  The  last  word  was 
changed  to  honour. 

Duke  Ernst  went  back  to  Osborne  to  spend  this 
"  the  saddest  of  Christmases  with  the  Queen,  and  as 
though  loss  and  loneliness  were  not  enough,  menace 
and  a  hint  of  war  threatened  her  Majesty  from  the 
Solent."  It  was  the  time  of  the  American  civil  war, 
and  England,  with  its  noisy  sympathy  for  the  South, 
was  allowing  buccaneering  vessels  to  coal,  refit  and 
1  Memoirs  of  Ernst,  Second  Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. 


12     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

man  in  English  ports,  pretending  not  to  know  that 
they  were  rovers  against  the  Northern  States.  One 
such,  the  Nashville,  was  then  in  Southampton  Water, 
and  so  an  American  man-of-war,  the  Tuscarora,  flying 
no  flag,  slipped  into  the  Solent  and  anchored  off 
Osborne.  Ernst  and  Victoria  jumped  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  intention  was  to  threaten  the  latter  per- 
sonally. The  guards  at  Osborne  were  reinforced,  two 
English  frigates  cruised  between  the  island  and  the 
American  ship,  and  gradually  everything  assumed  a 
warlike  aspect.  "At  any  moment,"  says  the  Duke, 
"some  unforeseen  incident,  such  as  would  have  been 
nothing  new  in  the  English  navy,  might  have  been 
followed  by  the  most  dreadful  consequences."  How- 
ever, nothing  did  happen;  the  Tuscarora  remained 
for  some  days,  ran  into  Southampton  Water  on 
January  8  and  spent  some  time  silently  daring  the 
Nashville  to  move,  and  what  occurred  later  I  do  not 
know. 

Queen  Victoria  remained  at  Osborne  for  weeks, 
taking  "great  pleasure  in  the  universal  feeling  of 
sympathy  for  her  and  sorrow  for  him  shown  by  all 
classes,"  and  in  reading  and  re-reading  the  innumer- 
able consolatory  letters  she  had  received,  and  all  of 
which  she  carefully  preserved.  It  is  curious,  in  the 
light  of  after  events,  to  note  that  she  was  most  deeply 
impressed  by  the  letter  written  by  Gladstone  and  that 
she  specially  answered  it,  begging  him  to  write  again. 
Gladstone's  speech  at  Manchester  on  the  Prince 
Consort's  death,  showing  how  well  he  could  sympa- 
thize with  loss,  is  now  historic.  Victoria's  whole 


PRINCE  CONSORT  AND  QUEEN  VICTORIA  IN   1860 


THE   QUEEN    ALONE  13 

conversation  during  those  weeks  at  Osborne  was  of 
the  Prince,  "and  she  found  much  comfort  in  it,"  said 
Lady  Ely,  who  left  early  in  February,  being  ill  and 
much  depressed,  a  state  to  which  most  of  the  Queen's 
attendants  had  been  reduced  by  the  constant  demand 
made  upon  their  active  show  of  sympathy. 

In  politics  matters  were  greatly  complicated  by  the 
serious  illness  of  Palmerston,  who  had  a  severe  attack 
of  gout,  it  being  feared  that  he  would  not  recover; 
indeed,  his  death  was  actually  reported  at  one  time. 
Had  he  died  the  Queen  would  have  regarded  it  as 
a  very  great  calamity  for  her,  so  near  had  she  and 
her  old  enemy  approached  each  other  in  these  days. 
But  if  Pam  were  incapable  of  conducting  public 
affairs,  Victoria  herself  found  it  intolerable  to  induct 
herself  once  again  into  the  resumption  of  the  actual 
practice  of  her  regal  duties;  indeed,  her  strong  deter- 
mination to  live  according  to  the  Prince's  ideals  hung 
for  a  little  in  the  balance.  She  wanted  to  do  it,  but 
the  effort  was  too  dreadful;  she  surely  could  have 
some  respite;  no  one  would  expect  her  at  once  to 
put  her  shoulders  under  the  yoke.  Thus  it  was  that, 
when  obliged  to  communicate  with  her  Ministers,  she 
left  it  to  Sir  Charles  Phipps,  the  keeper  of  the  privy 
purse,  to  act  as  her  mouthpiece.  The  Ministers  were 
unwilling  to  allow  the  formation  of  a  new  precedent 
of  so  important  a  nature,  and  signed  a  memorial 
refusing  to  transact  business  with  her  in  this  unofficial 
way.  The  Earl  of  Malmesbury  judged  that  their 
action,  "though  right,  was  certainly  cruel  under 
present  circumstances."  But  the  cruelty  may  be 


14     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

doubted.  Her  Majesty  was  for  years  only  too  fully 
inclined  to  indulge  her  grief  to  the  exclusion  of 
everything  else,  and  something  of  sufficient  importance 
to  divert  her  mind  must  have  been,  even  at  that  early 
date,  a  blessing. 

If  the  Queen  had  chosen  as  her  deputy  the  right 
person,  the  heir  to  the  throne,  the  incident  might  have 
been  regarded  differently.  But  this  she  would  not 
do.  She  was  determined,  for  one  thing,  that  the  young 
prince  should  go  through  with  the  programme  already 
marked  out  for  him  by  his  father,  in  spite  of  any 
arguments  which  might  be  urged  against  it  by  King 
Leopold  or  any  one  else;  and  she  had  also  made  up 
her  mind  that  Albert  Edward  was  the  last  person 
upon  whom  she  would  call  for  help.  So  she  bowed 
to  the  demands  of  her  Ministers  and  held  a  Privy 
Council  at  Osborne  on  January  6,  1862.  "This  most 
painful  exertion,"  she  described  it;  and  such  it  must 
have  been,  for  it  was  twenty  years  since  she  had  met 
her  Privy  Councillors  without  the  support  of  the 
Prince  Consort. 


CHAPTER    II 

A  PRINCE  IN  BONDAGE 

"  Busch.  They  live  above  the  cloud  of  courtiers  and  other 
menials,  separated  by  them  from  the  ideas  and  feelings  of  other 
mortals,  whose  wishes  and  opinions  only  reach  them  in  a 
mutilated  or  adapted  form,  and  sometimes  not  at  all. 

"Bismarck.  The  comparison  is  a  good  one,  gods  and  yet  very 
human.  They  ought  to  be  better  educated,  so  that  they  should 
know  how  things  look  here  below,  how  the  real  are  not  appear- 
ances but  truth." — Moritz  Busch:  Bismarck,  Some  Secret 
Pages  of  his  History. 

"  In  Edinburgh  next,  thy  poor  noddle,  perplext, 

The  gauntlet  must  run  of  each  science  and  study, 
Till    the    mixed    streams    of    knowledge,    turned    on    by    the 

college, 

Through  the  fields  of  thy  boy-brains  run  shallow  and  muddy. 
Dipped  in  grey  Oxford  mixture  (lest  that  prove  a  fixture), 

The  poor  lad  's  to  be  plunged  in  less  orthodox  Cam, 
When  dynamics  and  statics,  and  pure  mathematics, 

Will  be  piled  on  his  brain's  awful  cargo  of  cram. 
Where  next  the  boy  may  go,  to  swell  the  farrago, 

We  haven't  yet  heard,  but  the  palace  they're  plotting  in; 
To  Berlin,  Jena,  Bonn,  he'll  no  doubt  be  passed  on, 

And  drop  in  for  a  finishing  touch,  p'raps  at  Gottingen." 

Punch,  September  24,  1859. 

OF  late  years  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  presented 
great  difficulties  to  his  parents,  who  did  not  know  how 
to  reconcile  the  position  and  claims  of  the  heir  to 
the  throne  with  the  anomalous  position  of  his  father. 
Victoria  had  been  much  agitated  by  this  problem  in 
1857  when,  as  a  safeguard,  she  decided  to  confer,  by 


16    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Royal  Letters  Patent,  as  Parliament  would  not  do  it 
for  her,  the  title  of  Prince  Consort  upon  her  husband, 
writing  about  it  as  follows — 

"  The  children  may  deny  the  position  which  their 
mother  has  given  to  their  father  as  a  usurpation  over 
them,  having  the  law  on  their  side;  or,  if  they  waive 
their  rights  in  his  favour,  he  will  hold  a  position 
granted  by  the  forbearance  of  his  children.  In  both 
cases  this  is  a  position  most  derogatory  to  the  Queen 
as  well  as  to  her  husband,  and  dangerous  to  the  peace 
and  well-being  of  her  family.  If  the  children  resist, 
the  Queen  will  have  her  husband  pushed  away  from 
her  side  by  her  children,  and  they  will  take  precedence 
over  the  man  whom  she  is  bound  to  obey;  if  they 
are  dutiful  she  will  owe  her  peace  of  mind  to  their 
continued  generosity." 

But  when  the  title  was  conferred  the  parental 
uneasiness  did  not  quite  disappear,  and  this  led  to  the 
putting  off  as  long  as  possible  any  step  which  would 
tend  to  recognize  in  the  Prince  of  Wales  a  person  of 
responsibility.  They  also  had  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  he  was  a  disappointment,  that  he  was  far  from 
reaching  anywhere  near  the  ideal  which  they  had  raised 
for  him. 

In  their  youth  they  had  unquestioningly  accepted 
Baron  Stockmar's  dictum  that  from  the  very  first — 
nay,  from  before  his  birth,  their  son  must  be  trained 
for  his  high  and  kingly  state ;  they  thought  unceasingly 
about  him  and  his  mental  needs,  consulted  over  every 
detail,  mapped  out  every  branch  of  knowledge  which 
he  was  to  acquire.  His  mind  was  to  them  the  blank 


A   PRINCE   IN    BONDAGE  17 

page  upon  which  they  were  to  imprint  their  own  ideals. 
They  never  realized  that  the  boy  was  born  with  a  tem- 
perament and  predilections  of  his  own,  and  they  felt 
injured  and  surprised  when  their  impressions  came  out 
blurred  and  spoilt.  They  gave  him  history,  science 
and  languages  to  study,  and  there  they  stopped,  and, 
in  stopping,  failed.  Romance  was  rigidly  barred ;  even 
the  good  and  staid  Sir  Walter  was  accounted  too 
frivolous  for  a  young  prince.  In  his  childhood  there 
had  been  no  fairy  tales,  and  in  his  youth  poetry  was 
banished,  while  none  of  the  graces  of  literature  were 
allowed  to  lighten  and  brighten  the  dry  ways  of  history 
and  science.  His  mind  was  kept  in  a  prison,  and  his 
body  was  scarcely  more  free,  for  his  actions  and  habits 
were  strictly  regulated  through  every  minute  of  the 
day.  Albert  Edward,  like  the  little  Princess  Victoria 
of  an  earlier  generation,  was  never  permitted  to  be 
alone,  and  very  seldom  allowed  to  enjoy  the  society  of 
boys  of  his  own  age.  Well  might  Prince  Metternich 
say  of  him  at  sixteen — 

"  He  is  pleasant  to  every  one,  but  he  has  an  em- 
barrassed and  a  very  sad  air." 

Any  infringement  of  his  parents'  rules  was  met  with 
definite  punishment,  for  reason  had  no  great  place  in 
this  iron  system.  The  Prince  Consort  never  spared 
the  child  by  neglecting  the  rod,  and  it  is  on  record  that 
once  when,  as,  a  little  boy,  the  Prince  behaved  badly 
in  the  drawing-room,  the  Queen  took  him  up  and 
administered  with  her  own  hand  the  correction  so  dear 
to  the  hearts  of  the  parents  of  that  period. 

As  a  young  man  Albert  Edward  had  to  sandwich 


18    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

visits  abroad  with  educational  experiments  at  Edin- 
burgh, Oxford  and  Cambridge,  each  of  which  places 
furnished  a  story  of  him,  two  of  which  endeared  him 
more  to  the  less  well-  or  ill-regulated  public  than  to 
his  father;  the  other  pleased  all.  At  Edinburgh  he 
was  studying  under  Lyon  Playfair,  and  one  day,  after 
making  the  Prince  wash  his  hands  to  get  rid  of  any 
grease,  the  lecturer  said — 

"  Now,  sir,  if  you  have  any  faith  in  science  you  will 
plunge  your  right  hand  into  this  cauldron  of  boiling- 
lead  and  ladle  it  out  into  the  cold  water  which  is 
standing  by." 

"  Are  you  serious  ?  "  asked  the  Prince,  and  on  being 
assured  that  he  was,  he  said,  "  If  you  tell  me  to  do  it 
I  will." 

"  I  do  tell  you,"  answered  Playfair,  and  the  Prince 
ladled  out  the  burning  fluid  without  scald  or  hurt. 

Wherever  the  youth  went  he  was  surrounded  by  men 
of  a  mature  age.  Sir  Edward  Dicey  1  tells  how  he 
saw  him  in  Rome  often,  but  "  no  one  ever  saw  the 
Prince  out  of  doors  alone ;  he  was  always  accompanied 
by  one  or  both  his  tutors,  General  Grey  or  Mr. 
Frederick  Gibbs,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge. Admirably  qualified  to  explain  monuments 
they  may  have  been,  but  they  were  certainly  not  the 
companions  that  a  young  prince  would  have  chosen." 

It  was  so  until  he  was  twenty-one,  and  it  was  the 
duty  of  the  elderly  gentleman  at  the  moment  respon- 
sible to  send  daily  reports  to  the  parents,  giving  a 

1  King  Edward    VII:   Biographical  and   Personal   Sketches. 
By  Sir  Edward  Dicey. 


A   PRINCE   IN   BONDAGE  19 

detailed  narrative  of  his  pupil's  life  during  the  pre- 
ceding day,  telling  where  he  had  been,  whom  he  had 
spoken  to  or  seen. 

Thus  it  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  now  and 
then  the  youth  rebelled  and  tried  to  escape  into  a 
short  freedom.  A  story  goes  that  when  at  Oxford 
he  rose  quietly  very  early  one  morning  and  left  the 
city  of  learning  while  his  estimable  tutors  were  still 
sleeping  the  sleep  of  the  just.  However,  they  soon 
found  it  out,  and  going  to  the  station  discovered  that 
he  had  taken  a  ticket  to  London,  whereupon  they  wired 
to  his  father,  with  the  result  that  the  truant  was  met 
at  the  terminus  by  two  footmen  in  charge  of  a  royal 
carriage.  They  asked  him  where  he  wished  to  be 
driven,  and  he  replied,  with  quiet  humour — 

"  To  Exeter  Hall." 

The  Cambridge  story  is  much  the  same,  except 
that  this  time  the  footmen  brought  a  letter  from  the 
Queen  desiring  his  attendance  at  lunch  at  Buckingham 
Palace. 

By  1 86 1  Albert  Edward  was  practically  banished 
from  home  excepting  for  a  very  short  time  there  in 
between  college  and  travel.  Thus,  had  his  father 
lived,  he  would  have  spent  at  Windsor  the  days 
between  the  end  of  the  term  and  the  28th  of  December, 
when  a  journey  to  the  East  would  have  begun.  This 
sort  of  thing  had  been  going  on  for  some  years,  and 
people  who  watched  events  did  not  scruple  to  say  that 
Albert- Victoria  had  no  desire  for  the  presence  of  their 
eldest  son  at  the  centre  of  affairs;  that  the  Prince 
Consort  was  simply  putting  off  the  evil  day  as  long 


20    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

as  possible  by  labelling  these  perfunctory  collegiate 
careers  and  these  travels  abroad  as  education. 

There  were  whispers  at  Court  about  serious  mis- 
deeds on  the  young  prince's  part,  and  after  Albert's 
death  it  was  said  that  the  Queen  was  bitterly  angry 
with  her  son,  as  she  blamed  him  for  his  father's  fatal 
illness,  in  that  the  Prince  Consort  had  caught  a  chill 
when  he  went  to  Cambridge  in  November  to  extricate 
him  from  the  effects  of  some  escapade.  Colour  was 
given  to  this  by  the  fact  that  she  expressed  no  desire 
for  his  presence  during  the  weeks  that  the  Prince  was 
ill ;  even  on  the  Friday  when  Dr.  Jenner  told  her  that 
her  husband's  state  was  most  critical  she  did  not  send 
for  him.  He  was  left  in  Cambridge  in  disgrace,  shut 
out  from  the  family  anxiety  because,  having  been 
brought  up  on  a  starvation  system,  he  had  fallen  into 
excess.  Princess  Alice  sent  him  a  telegram  late  on 
the  Friday,  and  by  starting  at  once  he  reached  Windsor 
at  three  on  Saturday  morning,  stricken  with  grief, 
and  ready  to  do  anything.  But  the  suppression  under 
which  he  had  been  brought  up  had  destroyed  his 
initiative,  and  it  was  Princess  Alice  who  took  the  lead. 
Neither  then  nor  later  did  he  ever  stand  in  the  position 
of  an  adviser  or  helper  to  his  mother. 

Various  explanations  were  given  for  this,  the  best 
accredited  being  the  resentment  mentioned  above, 
which  was  so  keen  that  Victoria  preferred  not  to  have 
her  son  near  her.  A  totally  different  one  was  that  she 
gave  him  the  chance  of  retrieving  himself,  by  asking 
him  to  become  her  private  secretary,  taking  up  as  far 
as  possible  the  work  of  his  father.  The  Prince,  know- 


THE  PRINCE  CONSORT  IN  1861 


21 

ing  what  that  work  had  been,  aware  of  his  own  inex- 
perience and  his  mother's  arbitrariness,  was  afraid  of 
the  task  and  begged  her  not  to  require  so  much  of  him 
at  first.  It  was  added  that  the  Queen  never  forgave 
him  his  hesitation,  and  that  when  later  he  himself  asked 
for  the  post  she  absolutely  refused  to  let  him  associate 
himself  in  any  way  with  State  affairs. 

The  latter  story  is  hardly  credible.  Victoria  was 
a  rigid  little  person,  and  the  impressions  on  her  mind 
at  the  date  of  Albert's  death  seemed  to  remain  there 
for  about  three  decades.  At  that  moment  both  she  and 
her  husband  were  disappointed  that  their  son  had  not 
turned  out  as  they  expected,  as  they  felt  that  their 
careful  training  ought  to  have  turned  him  out;  they 
were  certain  that  the  fault  did  not  lie  in  their  system, 
but  in  some  abnormal  strain  of  wickedness  in  the  boy 
himself,  therefore  they  could  neither  trust  nor  rely 
upon  him ;  and  therefore,  also,  Victoria  was  determined 
to  carry  out  the  final  plans  for  his  regeneration  which 
had  been  made  by  her  consort. 

Reports  of  dissensions  and  differences  between 
mother  and  son  were  spread  abroad,  varied  by  others 
that  the  Queen  had  refused  to  see  or  speak  with  Albert 
Edward  at  all,  and  the  newspapers  began  to  treat  of 
the  subject.  Thus,  ten  days — pitiably  soon — after  the 
beginning  of  her  Majesty's  widowhood  a  leader  ap- 
peared in  The  Times  offering  her  some  advice.  Truly 
she  was  not  to  be  allowed  time  for  grief.  There  were 
whispers  going  about — probably  quite  unjustifiably — 
of  influence  inimical  to  the  young  prince  being 
exercised  by  the  old  advisers,  King  Leopold  and 


Stockmar,  which  perhaps  explains  the  haste  of  The 
Times. 

The  article  began  by  reminding  the  Queen  that  there 
had  always  been  discord  between  the  Brunswickian 
sovereigns  and  their  heirs;  that  the  duty  of  a  parent 
was  not  terminated  by  change,  and  that  implicit 
obedience  should  result  in  mutual  confidence  and 
affection. 

"We  sincerely  trust  that  her  Majesty,  so  superior 
in  most  respects  to  most  sovereigns  of  her  race,  will 
also  prove  her  superiority  to  them  by  regarding  any 
influence  which  may  interpose  between  her  and  the 
confidence  of  her  son  as  a  sinister  and  ill-omened 
intrusion,  boding  nothing  but  evil  to  her  and  to  him. 
We  are  sure  she  will  feel — what  any  mother  in  a 
private  station  would  feel — that  of  all  the  counsels 
that  are  offered  him  there  are  none  which  it  is  so 
desirable  that  he  should  follow  as  her  own.  A  young 
and  active  mind  naturally  seeks  for  employment,  and 
it  is  in  the  power  of  the  Queen  to  provide  for  the 
Prince  the  most  profitable  and  dignified  employment 
in  which  he  can  be  engaged  by  associating  him  with 
her  as  much  as  possible  in  the  cares  and  duties  of 
government." 

A  day  or  two  later  an  attack  was  made  on  the  Prince 
himself  which  had  something  of  the  revivalist  twang 
about  it.  He  was  admonished  that  from  living  a  most 
unusually  restrained  life,  he  was  now  the  head  of  the 
family;  that  two  paths  lay  before  him,  those  of  duty 
and  pleasure;  and  that  if  he  wished  for  public  affec- 
tion and  esteem  he  must  "choose  now — the  decision 


A   PRINCE    IN    BONDAGE  23 

is  to  be  made  this  very  hour  "• —between  frivolity, 
trouble  and  misery,  and  a  reign  of  usefulness  which 
would  make  his  name  blessed  for  ever  ! 

Other  papers  followed  suit,  either  preaching  to 
Albert  Edward  or  defending  him,  and  Reynolds' s 
Newspaper  had  the  temerity  to  end  with  this  flourish — 

"  So  he  will  continue  a  new  and  better  mode  of 
reigning  in  England,  one  needed  by  the  advance  in 
power  of  the  heir  and  the  reserve  imposed  by  that 
advance  on  the  personal  action  of  the  Sovereign." 

We  can  imagine  the  stupendous  anger  of  Queen 
Victoria  at  the  hint  that  she,  a  ruler  by  right  divine, 
was  to  delegate  any  scrap  of  her  power  to  any  one,  son 
or  otherwise.  Such  words  entirely  sealed  the  Prince's 
fate,  and  four  days  later  it  was  publicly  announced 
that— 

'  The  Prince  of  Wales  will  carry  out  the  comple- 
tion of  his  education  and  make  a  tour  in  the  Eastern 
lands." 

The  decision  came  as  a  blow  to  many  people,  for 
workers  in  various  fields  had  been  anticipating  with 
pleasure  the  help  of  a  young  and  gracious  English 
prince  between  whom  and  them  that  strange  Germanic 
superiority  and  stiffness  would  not  lie  as  a  barrier. 
To  quote  from  the  Annual  Register,  he  was  being  sent 
away  "  at  a  time  when  his  presence  could  ill  be  spared 
at  the  palace,  and  when  the  prospects  of  the  Great 
Exhibition  (of  1862)  seemed  almost  to  depend  on  his 
taking  the  place  of  the  Prince  Consort." 

So  Prince  Albert  Edward  went  again  on  his  travels 
with  his  little  army  of  elderly  restrainers,  and  saw 


24     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

many  things,  the  most  notable  being  the  holy  burial 
place  of  the  Patriarchs,  the  Cave  of  Macpelah,  where 
were  buried  Abraham  and  Sarah,  Isaac  and  Rebecca, 
Jacob  and  Leah.  No  European  or  Christian  was 
allowed  within  the  tomb,  but  the  Prince  Consort,  with 
true  Germanic  disregard  of  other  nations'  suscepti- 
bilities, had  ordered  that  this  should  be  done,  and  so 
by  dint  of  serious  threats  the  English  party  gained 
admittance,  guarded  by  a  strong  military  escort,  an 
army  being  sent  by  the  cowed  authorities  so  that 
soldiers  should  be  stationed  in  every  house  and  on 
every  vacant  spot  in  case  some  infuriated  Mussulman 
attempted  in  his  wrath  to  avenge  the  intrusion  of  an 
infidel  prince  into  his  Holy  of  Holies.  By  such  inci- 
dents has  Britain  earned  her  reputation  for  arrogance. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE  QUEEN'S  CHILDREN 

"  While  she  was  visiting  the  Queen  after  the  engagement  she 
always  came  to  breakfast  in  a  jacket.  '  My  dear,'  said  the 
Queen  one  day,  '  you  seem  very  fond  of  jackets  !  How  is  it 
that  you  always  wear  a  jacket?  '  '  Well,'  said  little  Alexandra, 
'  I  like  them;  and  then,  you  see,  a  jacket  is  so  economical! 
You  can  wear  different  skirts  with  it,  and  I  have  very  few 
gowns,  having  to  make  them  all  myself !  My  sisters  and  I 
have  no  lady's  maid,  and  have  been  brought  up  to  make  all  our 
own  clothes.  I  made  my  own  bonnet. '  Bless  her !  " — Jane 
Welsh  Carlyle. 

"  And  there  were  old  gauntlets  and  pieces  of  hair ; 
And  fragments  of  backcombs,  and  slippers  were  there ; 
And  the  gay  were  all  silent ;  their  mirth  was  all  hushed ; 
While  the  dewdrops  stood  out  on  the  brows  of  the  crushed. 
And  the  dames  of  Belgravia  were  loud  in  their  wail, 
And  the  matrons  of  Mayfair  all  took  up  the  tale; 
And  they  vowed,  as  they  hurried,  unnerved,  from  the  scene, 
That  it's  no  trifling  matter  to  call  on  the  Queen." 

Jon  Duan. 

THROUGH  the  first  year  or  two  of  her  widowhood 
Victoria's  chief  interest  was  given  to  the  settling  in 
life  of  some  of  her  children.  It  was  a  great  anxiety 
to  her,  though  it  was  absolutely  pleasant  compared 
with  the  troubles  which  arose  later  over  further  efforts 
in  the  same  direction. 

The  first  to  be  settled  was  Princess  Alice,  then 
nineteen,  who  was  engaged  to  Prince  Louis,  nephew 
of  the  then  Grand  Duke  of  Hesse  Darmstadt;  he 

25 


26     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

possessed  a  very  small  income  and  no  house  to  which 
to  take  his  bride,  but  he  belonged  to  the  royally 
favoured  nation,  and  the  marriage  would  have  taken 
place  in  the  winter  but  for  the  Prince  Consort's  death. 
Parliament  granted  the  Princess  £30,000  as  dowry  and 
a  yearly  income  of  ,£6000,  and  the  wedding  took  place 
at  Osborne  very  quietly  on  July  i,  1862.  From  that 
time  the  affairs  of  this  loving,  gentle  daughter  absorbed 
much  of  the  Queen's  thoughts,  and  many  and  large 
were  the  sums  of  money  which  went  to  help  the  young 
people  to  make  a  home  at  Kranichstein  and  to  pay 
the  debts  incurred  in  doing  so.  Later  the  Queen 
had  a  palace  built  for  them  in  Darmstadt. 

At  the  end  of  1862  the  Queen  had  high  hopes  of 
seeing  Prince  Alfred  comfortably  settled  in  a  king- 
dom of  his  own,  for  the  Greeks  had  tired  of  Otto, 
the  king  imposed  upon  them  by  Russia,  France  and 
England,  and  of  his  rigid  Germanic  system  of  govern- 
ment. A  student  had  tried  to  murder  Otto's  queen 
Amalie,  also  a  German,  and  the  nation  had  hailed 
the  criminal  as  a  national  hero.  Upon  this  the  army 
revolted,  the  King  was  declared  deposed,  and  the 
royal  pair  took  refuge  on  a  British  man-of-war.  Then 
the  Greeks  looked  round  for  a  successor,  and  chose 
young  Alfred  of  England,  he  being  then  eighteen 
years  old,  probably  because  they  hoped  by  this  means 
to  regain  control  of  the  Ionian  Isles,  which  England 
had  taken  over. 

The  Queen  hailed  the  scheme  with  delight,  which 
caused  much  disturbance  to  her  Ministers,  who  fore- 
saw consequent  quarrels  with  France  and  Russia,  as 


THE    QUEEN'S    CHILDREN  27 

the  original  treaty  forbade  any  relative  of  either  of 
the  three  signatory  Powers  taking  the  Greek  throne; 
so  she  was  painfully  induced  to  relinquish  the  plan, 
and  the  crown  was  then  offered  to  King  Ferdinand, 
next  to  Duke  Ernst  of  Saxe-Coburg.  The  latter  in 
his  turn  was  delighted,  and  Victoria  was  even  better 
pleased  that  he  should  have  it  than  that  her  own  son 
should,  for  if  Ernst  went  to  Greece  Alfred  would 
have  Coburg  However,  Otto  had  accepted  to  the 
full  the  German  idea  of  his  being  a  king  by  divine 
right,  and  would  not  abdicate,  so  the  Duke  felt  that 
his  reign  might  be  somewhat  hazardous  :  that  he  might 
one  day  find  Otto  returned,  Alfred  in  possession  of 
his  duchy,  and  he  a  beggar  without  a  home.  His 
suggestion  then  was  that  his  nephew  should  become 
Regent  in  Saxe-Coburg  until  he  himself  was  firmly 
established  in  his  new  kingdom.  Leopold  thought  this 
reasonable,  but  Victoria  absolutely  refused  any  com- 
promise; Ernst  must  go,  and  go  for  good.  A  royal 
quarrel  resulted,  and  the  Queen  considered  herself 
greatly  harassed  and  ill-used  by  her  brother-in-law, 
Ernst  being  dubbed  as  grasping  and  ungrateful. 
Palmerston  thought  that  a  provisional  arrangement 
might  be  made,  but  he  was  getting  old  and  was  no 
longer  a  match  for  a  vigorous  and  strong-willed 
woman.  From  that  time  to  the  end  of  his  life  he 
gave  way  to  the  Queen  in  every  dispute. 

While  the  matter  was  still  pending  the  English 
Government  approached  Prince  Leiningen  and  Prince 
Hohenlohe,  both  young  relatives  of  the  Queen,  but 
both  saw  the  risks  as  too  great  for  the  adventure. 


28    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Knowing  of  these  negotiations,  Ernst  decided  defi- 
nitely against,  and  Victoria  with  some  bitterness  found 
closed  a  second  opening  for  Alfred.  William  George, 
a  brother  of  Princess  Alexandra,  was  brave  enough  to 
become  King  of  the  Hellenes — a  title  manufactured 
for  the  occasion;  and  a  year  later  the  Ionian  Islands 
were  ceded  to  Greece. 

The  marriage  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  been  much 
discussed  before  the  death  of  the  Prince  Consort,  the 
choice  being  eventually  between  two  German  girls, 
Princess  Alexandrina  of  Prussia  and  Princess  Alex- 
andra, daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Schleswig-Holstein- 
Sonderburg-Glucksburg,  who  had  by  the  treaty  of 
1852  been  made  heir  to  the  throne  of  Denmark. 
Queen  Victoria  keenly  desired  the  first  alliance,  but 
Prince  Albert  inclined  to  the  second,  and  King 
Leopold  strongly  upheld  him;  the  popular  belief 
being  that  he  was  moved  by  the  entreaties  of  Albert 
Edward,  who  had  seen  a  portrait  of  Alexandra, 
and  declared  that  he  would  marry  none  but  her. 
In  reality  both  Leopold  and  Victoria  had  deeper 
reasons. 

William,  king  over  a  Prussia  which  resisted  his 
weak  but  despotic  rule,  was  planning  to  cut  through 
his  troubles  by  flourishing  the  torch  of  war  in  the 
face  of  Denmark  through  the  Duchies  of  Schleswig- 
Holstein.  The  Queen,  allied  with  Prussia  by  her 
daughter's  marriage  and  moved  always  by  her  family 
emotions,  wished  to  make  it  impossible  to  side  against 
Prussia,  and  incidentally  against  the  interest  of  that 
daughter,  by  forming  another  alliance  with  that 


THE   QUEEN'S    CHILDREN  29 

country.  Leopold,  on  the  other  hand,  recognizing 
the  danger  of  Prussia  as  a  near  neighbour,  desired 
an  English-Denmark  bond  which  would  warn  Prussia 
from  her  intended  depredations.  His  arguments, 
backed  by  Albert  Edward's  inclination,  weighed  down 
the  scale,  and  the  first  hint  of  a  decision  led  to  a 
meeting  between  the  young  people  at  the  Prussian 
manoeuvres  in  September  1861 ;  then  the  Prince 
Consort  died,  and  they  did  not  see  each  other  again 
for  a  year. 

The  English  papers  were  constantly  referring  to 
the  engagement  as  an  accomplished  fact,  causing  much 
annoyance  at  Windsor;  but  in  August  1862  occurred 
one  of  those  little  comedies  of  ceremony  of  which 
Victoria  was  so  fond. 

First  she  went  to  stay  at  Brussels,  leaving  after  a 
few  days  for  her  daughter  Alice's  home.  A  day  or 
so  later  the  Prince  of  Wales  appeared  in  his  uncle's 
capital,  and  the  next  day  came  Prince  Christian,  his 
wife  and  daughters.  The  Prince  and  Princess  spent 
a  week  in  each  other's  society,  and  then  the  Danes 
departed  in  one  direction,  while  Albert  Edward  left 
in  another.  The  young  man  went  to  Kranichstein 
to  report  progress  to  his  mother,  and  was  quickly 
followed  by  the  Danish  party.  Then  the  engagement 
was  announced. 

On  Prussia  the  news  fell,  as  Duke  Ernst  said,  like 
a  thunder-burst.  The  Prussian  Princess  had  been 
slighted  for  a  little  person  from  little  Schleswig- 
Holstein;  King  William  had  relied  on  the  friendship 
of  Queen  Victoria,  and  she  had  failed  him;  indeed, 


30    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

the  ideal  of  a  "  united  Germany  "  could  no  longer  be 
cherished  by  her ! 

In  England  it  was  very  different;  the  people  lost 
sight  of  the  bride's  German  birth  and  saw  in  her  only 
a  Dane,  whose  land  was  nearly  surrounded  by  the 
wild  sea,  and  who  was,  or  must  be,  akin  to  the  English 
in  life  and  tastes.  They  accepted  her  with  all  their 
hearts,  and  were  ready  to  champion  her  through  thick 
and  thin. 

Sandringham  House  was  bought  from  Spencer 
Cowper,  at  the  extortionate  price  of  £200,000,  it 
having  then  to  be  rebuilt;  and  Marlborough  House 
was  redecorated  and  furnished,  the  usual  discovery 
being  made  of  paintings  under  a  layer  of  stucco,  in 
this  case  pictures  of  the  victories  of  Marlborough,  by 
Kneller,  up  the  stairway. 

Young  and  gay  as  she  was,  when  Alexandra  came 
to  visit  the  Queen  the  sadness  of  the  Court  oppressed 
her,  and  she  viewed  with  concern  the  heavy  crepe 
garments  worn  by  her  hostess.  Taking  up  a  bonnet 
one  day  which  was  overweighted  with  cre-pe  and 
encumbered  with  a  long  cre-pe  veil,  she  begged  to  be 
allowed  to  make  it  less  heavy.  The  Queen  hesitated, 
then  consented,  and  the  girl  removed  a  quantity  of 
material  without  much  altering  the  appearance.  When 
she  returned  it  the  Queen  took  it  with  a  sigh  and 
kissed  her.  That  she  wore  the  bonnet  afterwards  was 
a  triumph  for  the  Princess. 

The  marriage  treaty  was  signed  January  15,  1863, 
at  Copenhagen,  and  all  the  royal  family  set  to  work 
to  provide  a  trousseau  fit  for  the  future  Queen  of 


THE    QUEEN'S    CHILDREN  31 

England.  King  Leopold's  present  was  appropriately 
a  wedding  gown  of  Brussels  lace.  In  Copenhagen 
there  were  parties  at  which  the  delicate  and  wonderful 
clothes  were  shown;  in  England  State  levees  and 
drawing-rooms  were  held  by  the  Prince  of  Wales  and 
the  Princess  Royal,  or  rather  the  Crown  Princess  of 
Prussia,  who  was  credited  with  having  helped  to  form 
the  match,  perhaps  because  propinquity  to  the  Prus- 
sian Alexandrina  made  her  prefer  the  other  girl  for 
her  brother,  of  whom  she  was  very  fond. 

Now  the  Queen  had  determined  to  do  everything 
just  exactly  as  things  had  been  done  under  the  Prince 
Consort,  and,  though  a  tremendous  crowd  was  ex- 
pected at  these  State  gatherings,  the  order  went 
forth  that  they  should  be  held  in  the  little  rooms  of 
St.  James's  Palace,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
when  the  last  large  sum  had  been  spent  by  the  public 
in  renovating  Buckingham  Palace  it  had  been  under- 
stood that  such  ceremonies  were  to  take  place  there. 
Punch  dubbed  St.  James's  Palace  as  "  the  house  of 
detention  for  ladies,"  for  many  hours  had  to  be  spent 
before  and  after  the  ecstatic  moment  of  kissing,  or 
pretending  to  kiss,  the  hand  of  a  princess.  It  took 
hours  for  the  carriages  to  crawl  to  the  entry,  hours 
to  get  up  the  stairs  and  wait  one's  turn  in  an  ante- 
room of  small  dimensions,  and  sometimes  hours  to 
get  away  again — 

"Thus  on  they  struggled,  inch  by  inch,  and  stair 

By  stair ;  now  losing,  now  a  little  gaining ; 
As  though  it  were  a  life-and-death  affair ; 
As  though,  indeed,  this  courtly  presentation 
Worked  out  their  future  and  their  whole  salvation." 


32    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Victoria  had  made  one  concession  to  the  comfort 
of  her  callers :  she  had  allowed  some  chairs  to  be 
put  in  the  room  where  the  ladies  waited,  that  those 
who  were  strong  enough  and  quick  enough  to  fight 
for  them  might  rest.  Others  stood  until  their  turns 
came,  and  then  each  lady,  summoning  with  difficulty 
a  pleasant  expression  to  her  jaded  face,  made  her 
graceful  curtsey. 

The  coming  away  was  more  terrible  than  the  going, 
for  then  the  jamming  was  remorseless  and  inevitable, 
the  waiting  for  the  carriages  being  in  a  long,  narrow 
corridor,  something  like  a  tunnel,  in  which  there  was 
no  hope  of  movement.  Angry  and  impatient,  some 
dame  would  hear  the  official  announcing  her  carnage, 
and  be  entirely  unable  to  get  near  the  door  even  by 
the  most  strenuous  fighting.  So  the  vehicle  would 
move  on,  and  she  would  have  to  wait  while  it  made 
the  whole  round  again.  Pretty  girls  would  emerge  at 
last  with  their  skirts  in  rags,  a  portly  duchess  would 
beg  the  closely  wedged  bystanders  "just  to  stoop  and 
look  for  my  diamond  bracelet,"  worth  perhaps  the 
purchase  money  of  a  large  estate ;  and  every  one  would 
be  crying — 

"  Oh,  what  a  shame  it  is  !  Surely  the  Queen  cannot 
know  what  goes  on  ?  " 

No  cup  of  tea  or  refreshment  of  any  kind  was 
offered  to  the  victims  of  this  atrociously  bad  manage- 
ment, and  a  woman  fainting  from  exhaustion  was  a 
recurring  episode,  regarded  by  all  officials  with  perfect 
calmness. 

Well  might  indignant  correspondents  write  to  the 


THE    QUEEN'S    CHILDREN  33 

papers  and  suggest  that  if  people  were  worthy  of 
being  received  at  Court  they  were  worthy  to  enter  the 
Queen's  own  spacious  house,  and  remind  those  respon- 
sible of  the  broken  faith  over  Buckingham  Palace. 

The  Prince's  levee  in  March  was  as  bad  as  the 
Princess's  drawing-room,  more  than  two  thousand 
men  attending  it. 

"  Garments  were  cleft  of  them, 
Horsehair  was  reft  of  them, 
What  pen  can  write  of  them? 
How  at  the  sight  of  them 

Gents-at-arms  wondered. 
As  to  the  Presence  there, 
Draggled  and  damaged  men 
Rushed,  crushed  and  thrust  along, 

All  that  was  left  of  them ; 
First  the  two  thousand, 

Then  the  seven  hundred." 

There  was  one  presentation  made  at  this  levee  of 
which  the  newspapers  said  :  "  No  event  for  some  years 
past  has  excited  so  much  indignation."  The  Duke 
of  Wellington  had  brought  with  him  a  gentleman, 
rich,  well  bred,  and  one  of  the  principal  guarantors 
to  the  Commissioners  of  the  Exhibition  of  1862.  As 
the  crowd  fought  its  way  up  the  stairs  the  stranger 
stumbled  against  Justice  Baron  Pollock,  who  had 
an  extraordinary  memory  for  faces.  The  Baron  told 
what  he  remembered  to  some  official,  but  the  presenta- 
tion had  taken  place  and  the  levee  was  over.  The 
gentleman  in  question  had  many  years  before  made 
a  mistake  upon  a  cheque,  and  had  been  sentenced  to 
ten  years'  imprisonment.  He  was  what  was  known 
as  "one  of  Jebb's  pet  lambs";  that  is  to  say,  he  had 


34     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

come  under  the  humane  prison  reformatory  ideas  of 
Sir  Joshua  Jebb,  and  so  had  been  able  honourably  to 
reinstate  himself  in  the  commercial  world.  But  his 
ambition  flew  too  high :  wishing  to  make  friends  with 
royalty,  he  found  himself  publicly  advertised  as  unfit 
for  that  honour. 

The  storm  of  indignation  which  shook  the  papers 
over  the  unbearable  conditions  of  royal  receptions 
made  no  impression  upon  the  Queen,  and  the  girlish 
Alexandra  held  a  Court  for  Victoria  in  the  following 
May,  at  which  2,200  people  attended,  and  confusion 
was  worse  confounded.  To  add  to  the  faintings, 
losses  and  torn  rags,  empty  carriages  got  mixed  up 
with  full  ones,  so  the  presentations  lasted  until  six 
o'clock,  and  even  the  royal  hosts  were  exhausted.  As 
Henry  Greville  remarked :  "  What  was  never  done 
before,  they  retired  for  a  short  time  to  refresh  and 
repose  themselves."  The  poor  guests  had  no  chance 
of  that  relief,  however. 

It  was  hoped  that  Queen  Victoria  would  make  the 
wedding  the  occasion  for  emerging  from  her  seclusion, 
and  that  she  would  honour  the  bridal  pair  by  attend- 
ing as  a  queen.  This  hope  was  summarily  destroyed, 
and  so  much  stress  was  laid  upon  the  intention  of 
holding  a  quiet  wedding  that  Punch  declared  that  the 
ceremony  would  take  place  in  an  obscure  Berkshire 
village,  noted  only  for  its  old  castle  and  non-sanitary 
arrangements,  and  suggested  that  the  secrecy  of  the 
proceedings  should  be  carried  out  to  the  utmost,  the 
only  public  intimation  being  in  the  first  column  of 
The  Times — 


THE    QUEEN'S    CHILDREN  35 

"On  the  1 3th  inst.,  at  Windsor,  by  Dr.  Longley, 
assisted  by  Dr.  Thomson,  Albert  Edward  England, 
K.G.,  to  Alexandra  Denmark.  No  cards." 

The  settlements  had  been  granted  without  much 
parliamentary  bickering,  being  £40,000  to  the  Prince 
and  £10,000  to  the  Princess,  which,  with  £60,000  from 
the  Duchy  of  Cornwall,  was  thought  to  be  sufficient. 

The  entry  of  the  young  Princess  into  England  and 
her  progress  through  London  must  have  been  one  of 
the  most  stirring  events  of  her  life ;  pleasure  was  there 
certainly,  but  pleasure  pointed  by  alarm  is  unforget- 
table. At  Gravesend  half  London  seemed  to  be  float- 
ing in  gaily  decorated  craft  to  welcome  her,  and  from 
there  to  the  Bricklayers'  Arms  everything,  even  the 
haystacks  and  hedges,  blushed  with  royal  bunting; 
but  the  drive  thence  to  Paddington,  that  was  abso- 
lutely thrilling ! 

Queen  Victoria  had  made  all  arrangements;  she 
was  always  particular  in  her  instructions  about  any 
great  function.  The  carriages  sent  to  meet  the 
Princess,  who  was  to  drive  through  London  before 
the  eyes  of  all  England,  were  thus  described  by  Lord 
Malmesbury  in  his  Memoirs — 

"  I  was  never  more  surprised  and  disappointed.  .  .  . 
The  carnages  looked  old  and  shabby  and  the  horses 
very  poor,  with  no  trappings,  not  even  rosettes,  and 
no  outriders.  In  short,  the  shabbiness  of  the  whole 
cortege  was  beyond  anything  one  could  imagine,  every 
one  asking,  c  Who  is  the  Master  of  the  Horse  ? ' 

Another  order  given  was  that  the  carriages  should 
trot,  and  that,  though  the  way  lay  through  the  city, 


36     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

the  City  Fathers  should  take  no  part  in  the  welcoming, 
because  their  heavy  State  carriages  would  have  to  go 
at  a  walk.  It  is  really  difficult  not  to  wonder  whether 
the  latter  order  was  not  issued  that  the  gorgeous  city 
coaches  should  not  contrast  too  luxuriously  with  the 
humbler  royal  equipages.  But  such  a  loud  outcry  was 
made  over  the  "  trotting  "  order  that  it  was  rescinded, 
and  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Aldermen  were  allowed  to 
escort  the  Princess  from  London  Bridge  to  Temple 
Bar,  the  Duke  of  Buccleugh,  Lord  High  Steward  of 
Westminster,  and  the  Dean  and  Chapter  heading  the 
procession  from  Temple  Bar  to  Hyde  Park  Corner. 

The  Lord  Mayor,  however,  used  his  opportunity 
with  too  much  pride,  by  refusing  all  help,  either  from 
the  military  or  the  Force,  and  relied  entirely  upon  his 
own  five  hundred  police  managing  the  crowd.  But 
London  Bridge  and  the  streets  were  absolutely 
blocked ;  the  people  pressed  against  the  horses,  caught 
hold  of  the  sides  of  the  carriages,  and  in  a  struggling, 
shouting  turmoil,  with  waving  hands  and  arms  and 
open  throats,  shifting  and  clinging  like  figures  in  a 
nightmare,  they  strove  and  contended  to  hold  place 
and  get  nearest  to  the  carriage  which  held  the  Princess. 

This  extended  to  beyond  the  Mansion  House — the 
carriages  crawling  along  inch  by  inch — where  the  scene 
was  terrible.  Between  the  solid  walls  of  people  no 
exit  could  be  found;  fainting  women  and  boys  were 
with  difficulty  saved  from  being  trampled  on;  a  dead 
or  dying  baby  was  held  up  over  the  crowd,  and  a 
woman  was  seen  to  throw  a  child  into  one  of  the 
carriages  to  save  its  life. 


THE    QUEEN'S    CHILDREN  37 

When  turning  the  corner  of  the  Mansion  House, 
the  Princess's  carriage  swayed  beneath  the  pressure 
and  she  put  out  her  hand.  It  was  at  once  grasped  by 
some  one  in  the  crowd.  An  old  Irishwoman  clutched 
the  side  of  the  carriage,  and  Alexandra  said — 

"  Oh,  I  hope  you  won't  be  hurt !  "  Upon  which  the 
woman  responded,  "  God  bless  you,  my  darling !  " 

The  Princess,  feeling  the  benison  to  be  of  good 
omen,  replied,  "  Thank  you,  thank  you !  " 

The  equerries  around  the  carriage  showed  great 
good  humour,  and  effectually  persuaded  the  multitude 
to  give  way  foot  by  foot  before  the  horses,  Lord  Alfred 
Paget  betraying  a  skill  in  chaffing  which  made  every 
one  who  heard  him  his  friend. 

From  Chancery  Lane  the  route  was  better  kept.  At 
Cambridge  House  in  Piccadilly  the  royal  carriage 
came  to  a  halt,  for  upon  the  balcony  stood  the  veteran 
Lord  Palmerston  and  his  wife,  with  whom  salutations 
were  exchanged. 

At  Slough,  whence  the  royal  party  drove  to 
Windsor,  the  horses  became  rebellious;  the  leaders 
of  the  first  carriage  jibbed,  those  of  the  second  turned 
round  upon  the  wheelers,  and  the  harness  got  en- 
tangled, which  created  a  scene  of  great  confusion. 
However,  the  wise  man  has  said  that  all's  well  that 
ends  well,  and  the  little  Princess  did  get  to  Windsor 
that  night,  and  had  three  days  in  which  to  rest  for 
her  very  sumptuous  wedding,  which  "  was  so  grand  as 
to  be  quite  overpowering,"  judged  the  courtier  Lord 
Malmesbury. 

The  brilliant  show  may  be   imagined;   every  one 


38    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

agreed  that  the  bride  was  extraordinarily  beautiful, 
but  Lord  Ronald  Gower  gave  the  palm  to  another : 
'  The  finest  part  of  the  ceremonial  as  regards  the 
persons  present  was  the  magnificent  appearance  and 
presence  of  Princess  Mary  [of  Cambridge]  as  she 
seemed  to  sail  up  the  nave  of  this  gorgeous  chapel. 
She  looked  the  very  embodiment  of  earthly  magnifi- 
cence." Princess  Mary,  still  unwed  at  thirty,  though 
many  had  wanted  her !  But  there  seemed  always 
some  reason,  State  or  otherwise,  why  the  suitors,  great 
and  little,  should  one  after  the  other  be  discarded. 

Above  the  brilliant  scene,  in  a  windowed  box,  sat 
the  Queen,  almost  hidden  in  crepe;  one  apart;  feel- 
ing gladness  for  these  young  people,  yet  streaming 
with  tears  for  thinking  of  her  own  wedding  day.  Well, 
it  was  the  Victorian  way,  and  there's  no  more  to  be 
said. 

On  nearing  the  altar  the  Princess  curtseyed  deeply 
to  the  Queen,  and  her  maids,  unprepared  for  this, 
thought  they  ought  to  kneel;  then,  finding  their  mis- 
take, suddenly  straightened  themselves,  while  the 
Prince  stood  irresolute,  and  Jenny  Lind's  sweet  voice 
flooded  the  building  to  an  accompaniment  composed  by 
Prince  Albert.  Meanwhile  the  Queen's  first  grandson, 
the  amiable  little  Prince  William  of  Prussia,  now  the 
most  dishonoured  man  in  the  world,  was  biting  the 
bare  Highland  legs  of  his  two  uncles,  Arthur  and 
Leopold,  between  whom  he  stood,  and  who  were 
responsible  for  his  quiet  and  decorous  behaviour. 

After  six-and-twenty  royal  or  imperial  hands  had 
signed  the  register,  and  after  the  hundredweight  of 


THE    QUEEN'S    CHILDREN  39 

cake  had  been  cut  and  all  was  over,  the  gallant  com- 
pany started  back  to  London.  The  Windsor  station- 
master  had  forgotten  to  keep  the  platforms  clear,  and 
had  also  not  troubled  to  suit  the  train  accommodation 
to  the  company.  So  great  ladies  and  courtly  gentle- 
men stepped  from  the  castle  carriages  into  the  midst 
of  a  crowd  of  sightseers,  plentifully  besprinkled  by 
roughs  and  thieves.  Among  the  results  recorded  I 
find  Lady  Westminster,  wearing  half  a  million  pounds' 
worth  of  diamonds,  saving  her  property  by  scram- 
bling into  a  third-class  carriage,  the  venerable  Lady 
Palmerston  hunting  vainly  for  a  seat,  and  at  last 
finding  one  unoccupied  in  the  third  class,  and  Count 
Lavradio  complaining  that  his  diamond  star  had  been 
torn  from  his  chest. 

For  a  week  afterwards  the  papers  were  inundated 
with  letters  from  indignant  Englishmen,  who  com- 
plained that  Queen  Victoria  had  failed  to  honour 
either  the  Princess  or  the  nation  in  allowing  shabby 
carriages  to  form  part  of  a  great  London  procession. 
Said  one  such  in  The  Times :  "  Our  Queen's  equip- 
ages have  not  of  late  years  been  remarkable  either 
for  their  beauty  or  for  the  taste  and  finish  with  which 
they  are  turned  out,  and  certainly  the  servants,  car- 
riages and  cattle  selected  to  convey  the  Danish 
Princess  through  joyful  London  attired  in  its  holiday 
clothing  must  have  been  the  very  dregs  of  that 
singularly  ill-appointed  establishment  known  as  the 
Royal  Mews  of  Pimlico." 

The  popular  belief  was  that  the  impoliteness  shown 
was  the  result  of  a  dispute  between  the  Queen  and 


40    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

her  advisers  twenty-three  years  earlier.  "  Etiquette 
forbids,"  said  the  Ministers,  "that  a  young  prince 
should  use  the  Queen's  State  carriage  before  he 
becomes  her  husband,  or  is  in  any  way  connected  with 
the  State."  Victoria  was  said  to  have  remembered 
this,  and  would  allow  no  greater  distinction  to  be 
shown  to  her  new  prospective  daughter-in-law  than 
had  been  shown  to  her  own  beloved;  indeed,  not  so 
much,  as  in  her  youthful  days  the  Queen's  stables 
were  excellently  appointed. 


CHAPTER    IV 

A    STRONG    PRUSSIA 

"Lorenzo.  A  prince  above  all  things  must  seem  devout;  but 
there  is  nothing-  so  dangerous  to  his  state  as  to  regard  his 
promise  or  his  oath. 

"Alphonsus.   Tush,  fear  not  me,  my  promises  are  sound, 

But  he  that  trusts  them  shall  be  sure  to  fail." 
George  Chapman: 

'  Alphonsus,  Emperor  of  Germany.' 

"  I  know  that  our  dear  angel  Albert  always  regarded  a  strong 
Prussia  as  a  necessity,  for  which,  therefore,  it  is  a  sacred  duty 
for  me  to  work." — Queen  Victoria  in  a  letter  to  Ernst  of  Saxe- 
Coburg. 

ONE  of  the  most  remarkable  sentiments  held  by 
Queen  Victoria  was  her  affection  for  Germany  in 
general  and  Prussia  in  particular,  she  regarding  these 
countries  as  a  sacred  care  bequeathed  to  her  by  her 
beloved  prince,  and  whenever  she  mentioned  her 
desire  for  "  a  strong  Prussia,"  she  would  add  a  pious 
reference  to  the  departed  Albert. 

Frederick  William  IV,  the  Prussian  king  who  was 
set  aside  in  1857  as  insane,  had  stood  sponsor  for 
Victoria's  eldest  son ;  his  brother  William,  when 
Regent,  married  his  son  William  Frederick  to 
Victoria's  eldest  daughter,  and  he  visited  England 
many  times.  But  the  friendship  of  the  sovereigns 
did  not  mean  the  friendship  of  the  public,  nor  did  it 
include  political  amity.  Constant  annoyance  was  felt 

41 


42    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

in  Berlin  over  the  long  letters  from  the  Prince  Consort 
advising  the  King  how  to  rearrange  his  form  of  govern- 
ment, letters  often  sent  through  Baron  Stockmar; 
indeed,  the  perusal  of  a  chapter  or  so  of  that  period 
of  The  Life  of  the  Prince  Consort  will  show  what  a 
passion  Albert  had  for  interfering  in  other  people's 
concerns. 

In  Berlin  this  was  violently  resented,  especially 
when  William  became  Regent.  It  was  said  that 
England  had  dared  to  interfere  with  Prussian  politics 
and  that  Stockmar  had  come  over  the  Channel  with 
the  new  "  Prussian  Ministry  all  cut  and  dried  in  his 
pocket."  From  this  time  Prussian  outbursts  against 
England  became  a  "hardy  annual,"  the  anger  being 
mainly  directed  against  Albert,  and  after  his  death 
against  British  influence,  "the  scheming  Queen,"  and 
the  "  English "  Crown  Princess.  Victoria  never  did 
make  concessions  to  public  opinion,  and  consistently 
under-rated  the  value  of  the  sentiments  of  a  people; 
so  this  resentment  made  no  impression  on  her  feeling 
for  Germany,  and  she  still  worked  for  Albert's  ideal 
of  a  "  strong  Prussia  "  and  a  "  united  Germany." 

When  William  was  crowned  King  of  Prussia  at 
Konigsburg — only  the  second  Prussian  king  who  went 
through  the  coronation  ceremony — he  boldly  asserted 
that  the  Prussian  kings  "received  their  crown  from 
God,"  a  sentiment  with  which  Victoria  entirely  agreed. 
As  a  writer  in  The  Quarterly  Review  for  April  1901 
stated,  though  she  "probably  would  not  have  signed 
a  paper  saying  she  believed  in  the  divine  right  of 
kings,  in  her  heart  she  never  questioned  that  she  was 


A  STRONG   PRUSSIA  43 

the  anointed  of  the  Lord."  That  the  first  King  of 
Prussia  had  bought  his  crown  one  hundred  and  sixty 
years  earlier  from  the  Emperor  of  Germany  did  not 
seem  to  affect  the  claim  made  by  the  new  monarch  at 
all,  and  when  his  bombastic  utterances  were  strongly 
commented  upon  in  the  English  Press,  a  very  furore 
of  retort  arose  in  Berlin,  England  being  roundly  in- 
vited to  attend  to  her  own  affairs  and  leave  Prussia 
alone.  The  Queen  again  sympathized,  feeling  very 
angry  with  The  Times  and  other  censorious  journals. 

In  1862  William  had  so  much  trouble  with  his 
Parliament  and  his  people  that  he  had  decided  to 
abdicate,  in  spite  of  his  divine  right,  and  had  already 
written  out  the  deed  of  abdication  when  Bismarck 
came  to  his  aid,  and  still  further  frightened  him  by 
his  drastic  views  and  deeds. 

"  I  can  perfectly  well  see  what  the  end  will  be,"  he 
said,  after  one  of  Bismarck's  addresses  in  the  Land- 
stag.  "  Over  there  in  front  of  the  Opera  House,  under 
my  windows,  they  will  cut  off  your  head,  and  mine  a 
little  later,"  for  he  was  obsessed  by  the  fate  of 
Charles  I  and  Strafford.  But  his  Minister  laughed 
and  went  on  his  victorious  way,  and  William  became 
his  grateful,  if  sometimes  rebellious,  servant. 

With  Bismarck  the  occasional  anger  of  Prussia 
became  a  settled  jealousy  against  England,  and  though 
for  the  sake  of  Albert's  idea  of  a  strong  Prussia, 
Victoria  always  worked  for  Bismarck's  policy,  she  had 
a  great  dislike  for  the  man,  a  dislike  which  he  recipro- 
cated fully  in  a  mean  and  jealous  way,  condescending 
to  coarse  abuse  of  the  Queen  in  conversation  with 


44     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

his  entourage,  and  imputing  evil  and  cunning  reasons 
for  all  that  she  did.  This  dislike  he  extended  in 
double  strength  to  the  Crown  Princess,  and  all  through 
his  life  he  did  his  utmost  to  foster  adverse  criticism 
of  her  in  Germany.  He  claimed  in  the  name  of  the 
King  extraordinary  rights  over  her  household,  and 
always  had  his  spies  placed  in  official  positions  about 
her. 

In  1864  there  was  a  family  quarrel  between  the  two 
Courts.  Count  Philip  Eulenburg,  a  young  sub- 
lieutenant at  Bonn,  whose  brother  later  became,  in 
Bismarck's  pay,  master  of  the  Crown  Princess's 
Household,  was  unintentionally  jostled  in  the  street 
by  a  portly  stranger ;  Eulenburg  replied  with  foul  and 
insulting  language  and,  being  answered  in  kind,  drew 
his  sword  and  cut  the  man  down,  he  being  so  badly 
injured  that  he  died  in  the  hospital.  He  was  a 
Frenchman  named  Ott,  a  chef  to  Victoria,  and  then 
in  Germany  in  attendance  on  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh. 
The  Queen  and  her  son  were  very  indignant,  and 
acrimonious  discussions  took  place  between  England, 
France  and  Germany,  which  lasted  for  months,  Eulen- 
burg in  the  end  being  sentenced  to  pay  heavy  damages 
to  Ott's  widow  and  undergo  a  year's  imprisonment  in 
a  fortress. 

This  was,  however,  but  a  ripple  on  the  surface  of 
the  Queen's  enduring  love  for  Germany,  and  she  took 
her  stand  as  a  buffer  between  her  people  and  the 
aggressive  German  Government;  she  eagerly  married 
her  children  to  Germans,  asking  nothing  in  return  in 
wealth  or  position,  nothing,  in  fact,  but  the  bridegroom 


A   STRONG   PRUSSIA  45 

and  his  nationality,  but  in  these  arrangements  she  did 
occasionally  allow  herself  the  gratification  of  spiting 
the  Chancellor,  Bismarck. 

Queen  Victoria  has  been  regarded  as  a  great  states- 
man, but  she  did  not  show  that  quality  in  her  dealings 
with  Prussia;  for  during  the  first  ten  years  of  her 
widowhood  Prussia  put  a  ring  of  blood  and  fire  round 
Germany;  Poland,  Denmark,  Austria  and  France 
being  successively  attacked  and  more  or  less  ruined. 
Englishmen  had  deeply  desired  to  help  some  of  these 
weaker  countries,  but  Victoria  fought  every  one — her 
people,  her  Government,  the  Opposition,  her  family, 
in  her  determination  to  let  a  strong  Prussia  and  a 
united  Germany  arise.  She  consulted,  not  the  safety 
of  Europe  or  of  England,  not  the  balance  of  European 
power,  then  or  in  the  future,  but  what  she  knew  to  have 
been  the  ideals  of  the  Prince  Consort.  She  had  a 
bad  time  with  her  people,  but  she  would  have  endured 
anything  rather  than  have  put  out  a  finger  against  that 
German  ideal  by  assisting  one  of  the  victims.  She 
seemed  honestly  to  endorse  the  sarcastic  words  of 
Punch — 

"  May  Heaven  further  walk  over  Prussia  and  bless  her, 
And  still  of  her  neighbours'  possessions  possess  her." 

In  July  1862  Bismarck  was  in  London,  and  he 
outlined  his  future  policy  before  Disraeli  over  the 
dining-table  of  Baron  Brunow,  saying — 

'*  When  I  take  over  the  Prussian  Government " 
(which  he  did  two  months  later)  "  my  first  care  will  be 
to  reorganize  the  army,  with  or  without  the  Landstag. 
As  soon  as  the  army  is  sufficiently  strong  I  shall  seize 


46    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

a  pretext  to  declare  war  on  Austria,  dissolve  the  Diet, 
reduce  the  small  states  and  give  Germany  national 
unity  under  Prussia.  I  have  come  here  to  tell  this  to 
the  Ministers  of  the  Queen." 

It  was  a  policy  of  which,  except  probably  for  the 
attack  on  Austria,  Victoria  approved,  and  which  she 
helped  Bismarck  to  carry  out  by  an  attitude  of  strict 
non-interference. 

Bismarck,  regarded  as  so  "  great,"  did  more  evil  than 
good;  he  made  Prussia  physically,  but  he  destroyed 
her  soul.  He  derided  the  arts,  debased  the  Press, 
destroyed  the  Parliament,  and  tore  up  "  scraps  of 
paper  "  at  will.  He  fostered  the  seeds  of  mental  and 
moral  degradation,  indigenous  in  the  Prussian,  the 
fruit  of  which  to-day  has  made  of  all  Germany  an 
outcast  among  the  nations,  a  thing  so  unpardonable 
that  the  whole  world  is  aghast  at  the  sight. 

Bismarck's  quarrel  with  Austria  was  that  she  had 
recently  taken  the  initiative  in  calling  together  repre- 
sentatives of  all  the  States  to  consider  a  plan  for  a 
united  Germany,  and  this  naturally  pointed  to  the 
predominance  of  Austria.  Of  all  the  kingdoms  and 
states  Prussia  alone  stood  aside  from  the  great  con- 
ference called  at  Frankfort.  King  William  was  very 
grieved  over  this,  for  he  wanted  to  take  part,  and  saw 
himself  at  the  head  of  affairs  there.  The  Dowager 
Queen,  Queen  Augusta  and  the  Crown  Princess  all 
urged  him  to  attend,  and  the  King  of  Saxony  visited 
him  to  make  a  personal  appeal,  with  the  result  that 
William  promised  to  go,  and  to  send  a  signed  letter 
to  that  effect.  As  soon  as  his  visitor  had  departed, 


A  STRONG  PRUSSIA  47 

however,  Bismarck  entered,  and  had  a  long  interview 
with  his  king,  at  the  end  of  which,  to  quote  his  own 
words — 

"  I  only  succeeded  with  the  utmost  difficulty  in 
preventing  him  [writing  the  letter];  I  literally  hung 
on  to  his  coat  tails.  .  .  .  His  Majesty  lay  on  the  sofa 
and  had  an  attack  of  hysterical  weeping,  and  when  at 
length  I  had  succeeded  in  wringing  from  him  the  letter 
of  refusal,  I  was  myself  so  weak  and  exhausted  I  could 
scarcely  stand." 

Having  got  this  letter,  Bismarck  sent  for  a  regiment 
to  guard  the  palace  and  so  prevent  any  one  else  from 
having  access  to  his  "  master." 

This  abstention  of  Prussia  was  a  great  disappoint- 
ment and  cause  of  anxiety  to  Queen  Victoria,  who 
went  to  Coburg  that  she  might  be  nearer  the  scene  of 
action,  and  there  she  invited  both  the  Emperor  of 
Austria  and  the  King  of  Prussia  to  meet  her,  hoping 
to  induce  Prussia  to  join  the  Conference.  She  could 
not  understand  its  isolated  position,  and  saw  it  becom- 
ing an  Esau  among  the  nations;  reprobated  as  it  was 
by  all  because  of  its  dastardly  deed  during  the  Polish 
rising,  when  it  had  deliberately  given  permission  to 
the  Russians  to  pursue  Polish  rebels  through  Prussian 
territory.  From  Coburg  Victoria  wrote  to  Duke  Ernst, 
then  at  Frankfort — 

"  I  must  believe  that  Prussia's  position  is  growing 
worse  and  worse,  and  I  am  afraid  she  will  have  few 
voices  in  the  Assembly  of  Sovereigns  to  speak  in  her 
interest.  All  the  more  would  I  beg  you,  as  much  as 
lies  in  your  power,  to  prevent  a  weakening  of  Prussia, 


48     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

which  not  only  my  feeling  resists — on  account  of  the 
future  of  our  children — but  which  would  surely  also 
be  contrary  to  the  interests  of  Germany;  and  I  know 
that  our  dear  angel  Albert  always  regarded  a  strong 
Prussia  as  a  necessity,  for  which,  therefore,  it  is  a 
sacred  duty  for  me  to  work." 

King  William,  attended  by  Bismarck,  went  to  see 
his  royal  cousin  at  Coburg.  Bismarck  was  not  ad- 
mitted to  the  interview,  but  his  influence  was  on  the 
King ;  and  when  it  was  over  the  Queen  was  extremely 
depressed,  for  William  had  told  her  nothing  of 
Prussia's  hopes  and  plans.  After  the  Conference  her 
meeting  with  the  Emperor  of  Austria  took  place  at 
Castle  Ehrenburg,  and  of  this  interview  Duke  Ernst 
has  left  us  a  description. 

At  the  foot  of  the  staircase  stood  the  Queen  with 
her  children  on  either  side — Victoria,  Alice,  Helena, 
Alfred,  Leopold  and  Beatrice,  while  behind  her  stood 
her  Ministers  and  officers  of  State.  Francis  Joseph 
entered  the  great  hall  with  his  suite,  and  the  Queen 
kissed  him  on  both  cheeks  and  introduced  her  children. 
At  two  o'clock,  after  luncheon,  Victoria  invited  him 
to  an  interview  at  which  Ernst  formed  a  third.  He 
tells  us  that  the  Queen  "  maintained  the  usual  pleasant 
level  of  her  character,"  that  she  first  complimented 
Francis  Joseph  on  the  way  in  which  he  had  conducted 
the  Conference,  and  said  that  she  had  no  intention  of 
meddling  with  high  diplomacy,  but  would  make  her 
appeal  on  purely  personal  grounds. 

"  She  then  remarked  that  it  was  not  her  business  to 
enter  into  the  actual  political  questions  pending  in 


A   STRONG   PRUSSIA  49 

Germany,  but  she  had  a  personal  request  at  heart. 
Her  maternal  anxiety  for  her  children  rendered  it  a 
matter  of  heart  with  her  to  recommend  them  to  the 
Emperor.  Whatever  might  be  the  actual  difference 
between  the  views  and  policy  of  Prussia  and  Austria, 
she  at  all  events  hoped  one  thing,  that  the  Emperor 
would  never  let  the  position  and  the  rights  of  her  dear 
children  in  Berlin  be  prejudiced. 

'  The  Emperor  was  visibly  surprised  at  this  address. 
He  replied  in  generally  complimentary  terms,,  but 
did  not  touch  on  the  actual  political  question.  If  he 
left  Coburg  satisfied,  that  may  be  partly  due  to  the 
effect  of  his  having  found,  in  this  meeting  with  the 
Queen  of  England,  a  proof  of  how  greatly  his  Frank- 
fort expedition  had  contributed  to  raise  his  prestige 
with  non-German  monarchs." 

To  King  Leopold  Ernst  wrote — 

'  The  Emperor's  interview  with  Victoria  has  passed 
off  very  well.  It  was  an  exalting  scene,  without 
stiffness." 

This  was  the  interview  which  gained  for  Queen 
Victoria  her  first  definite  reputation  as  a  statesman ! 
No  one  then  knew  what  had  passed  at  these  meetings, 
but  it  was  believed  that  her  thoughts  were  upon 
weighty  European  affairs;  and  all  the  time  she  was 
merely  begging  first  one  king  and  then  another  to  be 
kind  to  her  children  who  were  settled  in  antagonistic 
parts  of  Germany.  Bismarck  must  have  been  as  much 
surprised  as  amused. 

As  has  been  said,  Prussia  had,  in  its  anxiety  for 
Russian  friendship,  played  a  dishonourable  part  to- 


50    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

wards  the  Poles,  and  had  therefore  been  subjected  to 
strong  criticism  in  the  English  Press;  but  Prussia 
intended  to  go  further.  Her  aim  was  to  beat  Austria 
down  from  her  pre-eminence  in  Europe  and  to  seize 
Schleswig-Holstein,  but  she  went  warily  to  work. 

Alexandra's  father,  as  Christian  IX,  had  succeeded 
to  the  Crown  of  Denmark  in  accordance  with  the  treaty 
of  1852,  but  Frederick  of  Schleswig-Holstein-Sonder- 
burg-Augustenburg  [what  terrible  titles  !],  who  thought 
he  had  a  claim  upon  the  Danish  throne  in  virtue  of  his 
mother  having  been  a  Danish  princess,  demanded  the 
kingdom,  treaty  or  no  treaty,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  his  father  had  taken  a  large  sum  of  money  to 
settle  this  claim.  The  great  Diet  of  German  States 
backed  him  up,  among  them  being  Hanover,  Saxony 
and  Coburg. 

This  was  Bismarck's  opportunity,  and  he  called 
upon  Austria  as  the  chief  German  power,  and  as  once 
the  possessor  of  Schleswig,  to  help  him  in  upholding 
the  treaty.  It  was  so  honest  and  simple  that  it 
deceived  Victoria,  but  it  deceived  no  one  else,  least 
of  all  Denmark,  who  knew  the  ways  of  Prussia,  and 
she  turned  to  England  in  her  trouble,  relying  upon 
the  aid  which  had  been  virtually  promised  during 
the  last  eleven  years.  Palmerston,  Granville  and 
Russell  were  prepared  to  give  it,  the  first  saying  in 
the  House  in  July  1863 — 

:c  We  are  convinced — I  am  convinced,  at  least — that 
if  any  violent  attempt  were  made  to  overthrow  the 
rights  and  interfere  with  the  independence  of  Den- 
mark, those  who  made  the  attempt  would  find  in  the 


A  STRONG   PRUSSIA  51 

result  that  it  would  not  be  Denmark  alone  with  which 
they  would  have  to  contend." 

Every  party,  except  the  peace-at-any-price  party, 
was  with  him ;  and  the  Danes,  counting  on  us,  prepared 
to  defend  themselves. 

The  question  was  a  three-sided  one,  and  like  Chris- 
tianity it  divided  families  and  friends.  On  one  side 
of  the  triangle  were  the  Ministry,  the  majority  of 
the  Opposition,  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales 
and  the  people  of  England,  all  for  Denmark.  On 
the  second,  upholding  Frederick  of  Augustenburg, 
were  most  of  the  German  states,  the  Crown  Prince  and 
Princess  of  Prussia — in  spite  of  Bismarck — Alice  and 
Louis  of  Hesse  and  Ernst  of  Coburg.  The  third 
party  consisted  of  Prussia  and  Austria,  and  in  con- 
sonance with  the  Prince  Consort's  desire  for  a  strong 
Prussia,  Queen  Victoria  refused  to  act  in  any  way 
which  was  against  the  interest  of  this  third  party. 
She  was  constantly  confronted  by  the  white,  anxious 
face  of  Alexandra,  and  guarded  herself  by  peremp- 
torily refusing  to  listen  to  any  word  about  Denmark 
from  the  Prince  of  Wales.  Her  daughter  Victoria 
urged  the  claims  of  the  Augustenburger  with  clever- 
ness and  asperity.  Princess  Alice  did  the  same  thing 
with  gentle  insistence.  In  the  autumn,  when  the 
Crown  Prince  and  Princess  were  staying  at  Windsor, 
with  the  intention  of  improving  their  kindly  love  for 
their  new  sister-in-law,  the  triangular  discussions  be- 
came so  bitter  that  at  last  Victoria  forbade  the  mention 
of  the  subject  altogether,  a  course  which  did  not  tend 
to  draw  the  sisters-in-law  together. 


52    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Duke  Ernst  wrote  to  the  Queen,  urging  her  to  take 
some  action  on  his  side,  and  she  wrote  him  a  long 
letter,  from  which  the  following  is  a  paragraph— 

'  You  seem  quite  to  overlook  the  fact  that  England 
is  bound  by  the  treaty  of  1852,  and,  greatly  as  I  may 
deplore  the  manner  in  which  that  treaty  was  con- 
cluded, the  Government  here  has  no  other  choice  but 
to  adhere  to  it.  Our  beloved  Albert  could  not  have 
acted  otherwise." 

The  English  Cabinet  agreed  upon  a  dispatch  to  be 
sent  to  Austria  and  Prussia,  declaring  that  the  Govern- 
ment would  be  forced  to  take  a  hostile  attitude  if 
Schleswig-Holstein  were  invaded.  The  Queen  ener- 
getically opposed  its  being  sent,  and  Lord  John 
Russell  resigned.  '  The  Queen  will  not  hear  of  going 
to  war  with  Germany,"  noted  Lord  Malmesbury  in 
his  diary,  and  he  added  that  the  country  and  the 
Government  would  like  to  fight  for  the  Danes,  "  but 
found  great  difficulty  in  the  opposition  of  the  Queen." 

Victoria  sent  for  the  leader  of  the  Opposition,  Lord 
Derby,  when  she  found  that  not  only  the  Liberals 
under  Palmerston,  but  the  great  body  of  the  Tories 
were  in  belligerent  mood,  and  made  him  promise  that, 
no  matter  what  his  party  wanted,  he  would  resist  every 
idea  of  war. 

When  the  address  from  the  Throne  was  drawn  up 
in  1864,  Lord  Palmerston's  definite  Danish  pronounce- 
ment produced  disagreement  in  the  Cabinet,  so  a 
second  and  milder  speech  was  prepared  and  sent  to 
the  Queen;  this  she  promptly  returned  as  impossible, 
and  it  was  not  until  the  evening  before  the  opening 


A  STRONG  PRUSSIA  53 

of  Parliament  that  she  gave  her  assent  to  what  was 
publicly  regarded  as  the  most  futile  speech  which  had 
ever  emanated  from  a  responsible  ruler.  The  Prince 
of  Wales  was  present  the  next  day  to  listen  to  a  state- 
ment of  which  the  most  important  item  was  a 
paragraph  of  flowery  congratulation  upon  the  birth 
of  his  first  son,  and  the  next  one  of  adulation  of  his 
mother — 

"  Her  Majesty  is  honoured  and  admired  not  only  in 
Europe,  but  throughout  the  world;  her  virtues  live 
again  in  her  children,  and  all  their  Lordships  fondly 
hope  that  the  infant  Prince,  who  was  born  under  these 
auspices  and  brought  up  under  these  happy  influences, 
will  at  some  future  day  reign  over  this  realm  with  the 
same  brilliant  qualities  which  have  adorned  the  reign 
of  her  present  Majesty." 

To  the  Commons  the  address  began  with — 

'  Three  years  ago  we  had  to  lament  the  loss  of  a 
great  and  good  prince,  a  loss  from  which  her  Majesty 
has  not  yet  recovered,  and  from  which  we  are  afraid 
she  never  will  recover." 

It  is  almost  unbelievable  that  in  a  time  of  such 
public  excitement  the  Queen  could  have  sanctioned 
such  puerilities,  and  that  in  this  speech  Poland,  then 
being  slowly  martyred,  was  not  mentioned,  the  war 
in  America  received  no  word,  nor  did  the  English 

'  o 

soldiers  fighting  in  China.  As  to  Denmark,  the  House 
was  simply  reminded  that  by  the  treaty  the  powers 
had  agreed  that  no  territory  should  be  filched  from 
Denmark;  but  another  clause,  which  showed  that 
each  Power  had  individually  bound  itself  to  protect 


54    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Denmark,  was  ignored.  In  the  discussion  Lord  Derby 
hoped  paradoxically  that  we  were  not  committed  to  a 
disastrous  war  with  Germany  nor  to  the  betrayal  of 
Denmark,  which  had  put  her  trust  in  us. 

Well  might  the  Austrian  ambassador,  Count 
Vitzthum,  say  joyfully — 

'  The  victory  of  the  peace  party  is  a  victory  of  the 
Queen  maligned,  insulted  and  reproached  with  Ger- 
man sympathies.  Her  Majesty  has  checkmated  the 
dictatorship  of  her  Prime  Minister,  and  beaten  him 
three  times  over  in  his  own  Cabinet  on  a  question  of 
war  or  peace.  The  Queen  has  recognized  the  true 
interests  and  true  wishes  of  her  people,  and  not  allowed 
herself  to  be  misled  by  the  gossip  of  the  drawing- 
room  or  the  declamation  of  the  daily  press." 

And  well  might  the  Americans  say  when  they  were 
pressing  their  claims  for  the  roving  acts  of  the 
Alabama  at  the  Geneva  Conference,  that  England's 
conduct  over  the  Danish  war  proved  that  England 
would  never  fight  again. 

The  Danes  fought  like  heroes,  but  it  was  a  fore- 
gone conclusion  that  alone  they  must  be  beaten. 
Prussia  was  then  as  Prussia  is  to-day,  though  less 
brutal.  She  bombarded  unfortified  towns — 

"Danish  homes  our  ordnance  shattered, 
Dashed  out  Danish  women's  brains, 
Danish  children's  bodies  shattered, 
Smashed  both  great  and  little  Danes." 

In  a  duet  which  Punch  gave  between  William  and 
Francis  Joseph  occurred  these  lines,  accentuating  the 
blatant  Prussian  piety  so  familiar  to  us  to-day— 


A   STRONG   PRUSSIA  55 

"  William.   And  we  smashed  the  young  fry  where  we  pitched 

the  live  shell ; 

So  I  turn  up  my  eyes  and  go  down  on  my  knees, 
And  give  thanks  that  I'm  able  to  do  as  I  please. 

"Francis  Joseph.   We'll  work  our  omnipotent  will, 

We'll  torture  and  burn  and  slay. 
Let  but  England  and  France  keep  still, 
And  a  fig  for  what  they  say." 

Palmerston,  his  force  of  character  relaxed  by  age, 
had  come  to  heel,  and  there  was  little  to  be  feared 
from  him,  but  the  satisfaction  the  Queen  felt  in  this 
was  dispelled  by  the  fact  that  now  the  Opposition  was 
crying  out  against  ignoble  inaction.  Lord  Derby's 
sympathies  were  with  his  party,  and  he  was  on  the 
point  of  yielding  when  he  was  again  summoned  to 
Windsor  and  sharply  reminded  of  his  promise.  But 
Disraeli  was  left,  and  he  was  preparing  a  vote  of 
censure  on  the  Government's  foreign  policy. 

The  usual  course  was  being  followed  of  summoning 
a  Conference  in  London  of  all  concerned,  except 
Schleswig-Holstein,  to  see  if  peace  could  not  be 
arranged,  and  a  month's  truce  was  proclaimed. 
Bismarck's  representative  arrived,  and  so  delayed 
matters,  ten  days  late,  that  affairs  might  be  left  in 
a  favourable  position  for  Prussia  when  hostilities 
recommenced.  The  Conference  failed,  as  it  was  bound 
to  do,  and  Victoria  told  Palmerston  that  she  would 
never  consent  to  England's  participation  if  the  war 
continued,  instructing  him  at  the  same  time  to  dissolve 
Parliament  if  the  vote  of  censure  was  carried ;  so  says 
Duke  Ernst  in  his  memoirs. 

Queen  Victoria's  popularity  had  decreased  when  she 


56    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

refused  to  join  in  any  attempt  to  stop  the  monstrous 
punishments  dealt  out  to  the  Poles  by  Russia — Prince 
Albert  had  always  condemned  the  Poles — and  now 
over  Denmark  it  fell  to  zero.  Exchanging  letters 
with  Duke  Ernst  over  the  Conference,  she  wrote  of 
loving  Germany  with  all  her  heart,  "especially  our 
part,"  and  of  having  done  all  she  could  for  peace. 
"  I  have  been  attacked  here — what  was  still  wanting 
in  my  sad  position — on  account  of  my  German  sympa- 
thies, and  a  few  silly  people  have  been  giving  out  that 
I  have  been  hindering  the  Government  in  its  actions. 
...  I  would  most  earnestly  request  you  not  to  men- 
tion me,  nor  lay  any  stress  on  the  little  merit  I  have 
had,  as  it  might  greatly  aggravate  my  position,  difficult 
and  painful  as  it  already  is." 

Disraeli's  vote  of  censure  was  a  crushing  attack 
upon  the  policy  which  the  Queen  had  imposed  upon 
Palmerston  and  which  Palmerston  had  allowed  her 
to  impose.  "Within  twelve  months  we  have  been 
twice  repulsed  at  St.  Petersburg.  We  have  menaced 
Austria,  and  Austria  has  allowed  our  menaces  to  pass 
her  like  the  wind.  We  have  threatened  Prussia,  and 
Prussia  has  defied  us.  Our  objurgations  have  rattled 
over  the  head  of  the  German  Diet,  and  the  German 
Diet  has  treated  them  with  contempt.  During  the  last 
few  months  there  is  scarcely  a  form  of  diplomatic  in- 
terference which  has  not  been  suggested  or  adopted. 
.  .  .  Couriers  from  the  Queen  have  been  scouring 
Europe  with  the  exuberant  futility  of  abortive  projects. 
.  .  .  My  policy  is  the  honour  of  England  and  the  peace 
of  Europe,  and  the  noble  lord  has  betrayed  both." 


A   STRONG   PRUSSIA  57 

In  a  flash  of  prescience  Disraeli  said,  "If  there  is  a 
cordial  alliance  between  England  and  France  war  is 
most  difficult ;  but  if  there  is  a  thorough  understanding 
between  England,  France  and  Russia  war  is  impos- 
sible." It  might  have  been  true  then,  but  to-day  the 
"  strong  Prussia  "  has  grown  so  strong  that  the  three 
allies  have  to  fight  it  side  by  side. 

Palmerston  was  only  saved  from  defeat  by  Bright 
and  his  little  peace  party. 

It  has  so  often  been  stated  that  Queen  Victoria  was 
a  true  constitutional  sovereign,  that  her  power  over 
State  affairs  was  purely  nominal,  and  that  she  abided 
most  loyally  by  the  decisions  of  her  Ministers,  that 
many  people  have  believed  it.  No  greater  mistake 
concerning  the  Queen  was  ever  made.  She  considered 
it  her  duty  to  express  her  opinion  on  every  subject,  and 
as  far  as  was  consistent  with  safety  to  impose  her  will 
upon  her  Ministers.  In  extreme  cases  she  would  give 
way  and  sanction  something  which  she  disliked,  but 
this  was  only  done  to  avoid  some  dangerous  crisis,  the 
two  most  notable  incidents  being  the  passing  of  the 
Irish  Church  Bill  and  the  abolition  of  purchase  of 
commissions  in  the  army.  In  these  Victoria  did  what 
Gladstone  wanted,  not  that  she  agreed  with  him  or 
because  she  thought  it  her  duty  to  be  loyal  to  the 
Government,  but  because  she  desired  to  save  the 
House  of  Lords  from  the  threatened  effect  of  their 
own  uncompromising  opposition. 

When  the  Danes  were  finally  beaten  the  aggressors 
agreed  that  six  years  were  to  be  allowed  to  the  in- 
habitants of  the  two  duchies  in  which  they  might 


58    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

decide  whether  they  would  choose  to  belong  to  Den- 
mark or  Prussia  and  Austria.  This  was  Bismarck's 
way  of  leaving  the  question  open  and  so  preventing 
Austria  from  taking  possession  of  any  part  of  the 
land,  the  whole  of  which  he  intended  for  himself.  In 
a  year  and  a  half  his  hunger  for  possession  grew 
ravenous.  He  was  satisfied  that  there  was  nothing  to 
fear  from  an  Anglo-French  alliance,  that,  as  some 
one  has  put  it — 

"  However  Palmerston  might  bark,  Queen  Victoria 
would  never  allow  him  to  bite  a  Hohenzollern." 

So  he  followed  the  usual  Prussian  course,  massed 
troops  on  some  one  else's  territory — in  this  case,  Hesse- 
Cassel,  as  a  good  jumping-off  point,  and  when  Austria, 
in  alarm,  brought  her  troops  to  defend  her  borderland 
he  shouted  aloud  to  all  Europe  that  Austria  was 
treacherously  mobilizing  her  army  and  starting  a  war. 
Hesse-Cassel,  indignant,  sided  with  Austria,  and  when 
that  country  was  defeated  at  the  end  of  six  weeks, 
was  promptly  swallowed  by  Prussia,  as  were  Schleswig- 
Holstein,  Hanover,  part  of  Hesse-Darmstadt,  and 
other  small  states. 

The  Queen  had  watched  this  attack  upon  Austria 
with  grief,  and  had  recognized  that  there  was,  after 
all,  something  of  the  wolf  in  Prussia.  She  wrote  to 
Lord  Granville,  "  Prussia  should  at  least  be  made 
aware  of  what  she  and  her  Government  and  every 
honest  man  in  Europe  must  think  of  the  gross  and 
unblushing  violation  of  every  assurance  and  pledge 
that  she  had  given  which  Prussia  has  been  guilty  of." 

But  Victoria  did  not  realize  that  she  had,  by  her 


A   STRONG   PRUSSIA  59 

abstention  from  a  just  course,  put  into  Prussia's  hands 
a  powerful  weapon  against  her  own  country;  that  she 
had  given  it  possession  of  that  seaboard  for  which  it 
longed,  and  that  henceforth  its  navy,  helped  later  by 
another  present  from  her,  was  to  grow  until  it  was 
thought  strong  enough  to  menace  England. 

If  she  deprecated  the  methods  of  Prussia,  the  results 
were  not  altogether  disagreeable.  Prussia  was  grow- 
ing strong,  and  as  a  French  writer,  M.  Abel  Chevalley, 
says,  "the  progress  towards  the  unity  of  Germany 
enchanted  her !  She  saw  her  daughter  an  empress 
in  the  future." 

Austria  had  once  been  the  Imperial  head  of  Ger- 
many, henceforth  the  Emperor  knew  himself  to  be 
second  to  the  family  of  Hohenzollern,  which  in  earlier 
years  had  felt  distinguished  by  being  the  cupbearers 
to  the  Hapsburgs.  The  blind  King  of  Hanover  and 
his  son  were  sent  wandering,  and  Victoria  telegraphed 
to  Duke  Ernst,  "  Thank  God,  you  are  safe.  It  is  too 
dreadful.  Where  is  the  poor  King  and  his  son?" 
To  which  she  received  answer  that  the  King  and  his 
son  had  passed  through  Gotha  early  that  morning  in 
the  best  of  health. 


CHAPTER   V 

FAMILY    GAINS    AND    LOSSES 

"  Really  I  do  not  think  it  possible  for  any  one  in  the  world  to 
be  happier  or  as  happy  as  I  am.  He  is  an  Angel,  and  his  kind- 
ness and  affection  for  me  is  really  touching.  To  look  in  those 
dear  eyes,  and  that  dear,  sunny  face,  is  enough  to  make  me 
adore  him." — Queen  Victoria  on  her  marriage. 

"  I  could  hardly  bring  myself  to  believe  that  this  was  really 
death,  that  which  I  had  so  often  shuddered  at  and  felt  afraid  of; 
there  was  nothing  there  dreadful  or  appalling,  only  a  heavenly 
calm  and  peace." — Crown  Princess  on  the  death  of  the  King  of 
Prussia. 

IF  Queen  Victoria  had  much  anxiety  to  endure  in 
the  'sixties  through  mistaken  foreign  policy  and  a 
strongly  stirred  people,  she  yet  enjoyed  many  of  those 
domestic  pleasures  which  deal  with  life  in  its  most 
primitive  aspect.  There  were  grandchildren  to  wel- 
come into  the  world,  brides  to  help  into  partnership— 
though  that  word  would  but  ill  express  Victoria's  idea 
of  the  marriage  state — and  deaths  to  call  forth  her 
tears  and  sympathy. 

In  August  1865  tne  Queen  went  again  to  Coburg, 
with  her  three  youngest  daughters  and  Prince  Leopold, 
that  they  might  be  present  at  the  unveiling  of  a  bronze 
statue  to  the  Prince  Consort  in  the  square  of  his  native 
town. 

Princess  Helena  was  then  nineteen,  and  either  from 

60 


FAMILY  GAINS  AND  LOSSES          61 

the  usual  cause  of  mutual  attraction  or  through 
maternal  policy  she  became  engaged  to  Prince  Chris- 
tian of,  Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, 
brother  to  the  husband  of  her  Majesty's  niece,  Princess 
Adelaide  of  Hohenlohe-Langenburg  (the  daughter  of 
Princess  Feodore,  half-sister  to  the  Queen). 

There  are  those  who  have  said  that  this  Prince 
Christian  was  brother  to  "the  Augustenburger "  who 
had  claimed  the  crown  of  Denmark,  and  also  that  the 
Queen  arranged  the  marriage  that  she  might  not  only 
placate  both  Denmark  and  the  little  German  states, 
but  give  at  least  one  little  blow  back  at  Bismarck,  by 
showing  compensation  to  the  family  he  had  cheated. 
However,  all  this  was  wrong.  The  Augustenburger 
renounced  his  rights  to  his  title  in  1864,  taking  instead 
that  of  Count  de  Noer,  and  dying  the  following  year ; 
I  have  not  discovered  that  he  had  a  brother.  His 
successor,  who  took  all  his  long  row  of  names,  was 
the  husband  of  Princess  Adelaide.  Thus  this  mar- 
riage seems  to  have  been  arranged  in  an  ordinary 
way,  with  no  underlying  policy  of  generosity  or  spite. 

Prince  Christian  was  accredited  with  a  wife,  but  as 
she  was  not  of  royal  birth,  royalty  would  have  con- 
sidered this  no  bar  to  a  second  marriage  with  a  young 
girl.  How  easy  is  royal  morality,  especially  that  which 
is  made  in  Germany !  Nearly  all  the  German  prince- 
lings of  that  date  appear  to  have  made  morganatic 
unions  at  least  once  in  their  lives,  which  they  gaily 
put  aside  as  soon  as  a  better  match  offered. 

The  Prince  had  neither  lands  nor  money,  but  Queen 
Victoria  was  ready  to  supply  all  that  he  needed;  so 


62    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

he  resigned  his  position  as  an  officer  in  the  Prussian 
army,  and  was  dowered  by  his  mamma-in-law  with 
£100,000  and  a  house  at  Frogmore.  When  the  wed- 
ding took  place  it  was  announced  that  "  none  of  Prince 
Christian's  male  relatives  were  able  to  attend,"  and 
Mr.  Punch  wickedly  suggested  that — 

"  Considering  what  the  bride's  brother  had  done 
for  Mr.  Poole  [the  great  tailor]  we  should  have  thought 
that  he  might  have  made  this  possible,  even  at  three 

months "  A  remark  which  shows  how  extremely 

impecunious  the  family  was  believed  to  be. 

Victoria,  however,  was  determined  that  full  honour 
should  be  given  to  Prince  Christian  in  England,  and 
when  he  approached  our  shores  was  peculiarly  insistent 
upon  the  use  of  his  title  of  Serene  Highness.  Thus 
the  Court  Circular  announced — 

"  H.S.H.  arrived  in  London  attended  by  — ; 
H.S.H.  embarked  from  Dieppe  in  a  Government 
steamer.  H.S.H.  was  received  at  Dover  by  the  naval 
and  military  authorities.  A  guard  of  honour  attended 
H.S.H.'s  departure." 

The  Pall  Mall  Gazette  maliciously  commented  that 
"  H.S.H.  must  be  rather  astonished  at  the  pinnacle  on 
which  his  betrothal  to  Princess  Helena  has  put  him. 
In  their  own  country  Serene  Highnesses  mostly  travel 
about  in  second-class  carriages  and  smoke  cheap 
cigars.  Here  they  put  in  motion  generals,  admirals, 
troops  and  paragraphs  when  he  moves." 

At  the  wedding  the  Queen  for  the  first  time  allowed 
some  modification  of  the  ghastly  garb  of  crepe  which 
she  had  lived  in  for  four  and  a  half  years.  Her  dress 


63 

was  of  moire  antique,  interwoven  with  silver ;  of  course, 
there  was  a  good  deal  of  cre-pe  about  it,  but  there  was 
also  a  row  of  diamonds  round  the  bodice  and  a  little 
coronet  of  diamonds  round  the  cap. 

It  was  not  in  such  festive  robes  that  Victoria,  a 
month  earlier,  had  watched  her  cousin,  Mary  of  Cam- 
bridge, marry.  There  had  been  much  speculation  as 
to  why  Princess  Mary  remained  single  until  she  was 
thirty-three,  for  there  was  always  some  one  ready  and 
waiting.  In  1864  she  was  said  to  be  sought  by  "a 
gallant  young  soldier  of  noble  birth,"  upon  whose  suit 
she  did  not  frown,  all  that  was  wanting  being  the 
Queen's  consent,  which  was  for  the  moment  withheld. 
It  was  evidently  withheld  for  longer  than  a  moment, 
and  Princess  Mary  had  still  to  wait.  In  1866  she 
met  Francis,  Prince  of  Teck,  the  only  son  of  Duke 
Alexander  of  Wiirtemberg  and  a  Hungarian  countess 
— another  morganatic  marriage,  but  a  faithful  one  ! 
Francis,  being  so  born,  could  not  inherit,  so  his  father 
made  him  Duke  of  Teck,  gave  him  his  blessing  and 
congratulated  him  on  marrying  an  English  royalty. 
He  was  a  third  poor  German  to  add  to  Prince  Louis 
of  Hesse  and  Prince  Christian,  but  so  much  regard 
was  felt  for  the  bride  that  the  published  comments 
were  on  the  whole  sympathetic. 

The  wedding  took  place  in  the  little  church  at  Kew, 
in  June,  in  the  midst  of  a  great  company  of  princes 
and  princesses,  and  the  Queen  entered  upon  the  gay, 
brilliant  scene  clothed  in  mourning  so  deep  that 
not  one  speck  of  white  relieved  her  dress  at  any 
point. 


64     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Many  were  the  grandchildren  born  to  her  Majesty 
during  these  ten  years,  chief  of  which  were  the  children 
of  the  Princess  of  Wales.  The  first  two  years  of  her 
life  in  England  could  scarcely  have  been  happy  to 
the  young  Dane,  whose  mind  was  filled  with  her  people 
and  their  troubles,  though  her  anxiety  was  tempered 
by  her  husband's  complete  sympathy.  At  breakfast 
one  morning  an  equerry  thoughtlessly  read  out  news 
of  a  Danish  defeat,  causing  Alexandra  to  burst  into 
tears,  and  Albert  Edward's!  anger,  it  is  said,  would  not 
have  disgraced  Henry  VIII.  It  may  be  imagined 
that  the  Princess  did  not  love  Bismarck,  and  once 
when  a  visitor  at  Windsor  asked  Princess  Beatrice 
what  she  would  like  for  a  present,  the  child,  having 
consulted  with  Alexandra,  replied — 

"  I  want  Bismarck's  head  on  a  charger,  please." 

The  Princess's  eldest  son  came  into  this  world  two 
months  before  he  was  expected,  and  he  was,  therefore, 
unable  to  enjoy  all  the  elaborate  preparations  which 
had  been  made  for  his  comfort  at  Marlborough  House. 
He  had  to  be  wrapped  in  an  ordinary  flannel  petticoat, 
and  was  professionally  examined  by  an  ordinary 
Windsor  practitioner  bearing  the  ordinary  name  of 
Brown,  just  like  any  ordinary  baby.  Alexandra  was 
staying  at  Frogmore  and  had  gone  to  watch  the  skating 
on  Virginia  Water,  leaving  there  at  four  in  the  after- 
noon; the  baby  was  born  at  nine,  and  the  London 
doctors  and  nurses  arrived  at  eleven.  Dr.  Brown  was 
probably  the  happiest  person  among  them  all,  for  he 
pocketed  £500  for  his  share  in  the  event. 

The  baby  was,   of  course,  very  small,  and  some 


FAMILY  GAINS  AND  LOSSES         65 

motherly  person,  thinking  to  comfort  the  Princess, 
remarked  that  John  Russell  (who  was  diminutive)  was 
a  seven  months'  child,  and  was  surprised  to  hear  a 
scream  of  laughter  from  the  bed. 

Alexandra's  second  son  was  born  in  June  1865,  he, 
too,  being  in  a  hurry,  though  he  only  antedated  his 
parents'  expectations  by  a  month.  Two  years  later 
a  man  named  Alfred  John  Pearce  published  a  pro- 
phecy about  the  young  Prince  George  in  an  annual 
he  then  edited,  and  this  was  re-published  in  1910  by 
the  Toronto  Globe.  The  salient  part  of  the  prophecy 
ran — 

"  From  these  positions  [of  the  stars]  we  may  con- 
clude and  predict  that  this  prince  will,  if  he  live, 
become  King  of  England,  under  the  name  of 
George  V.  ...  The  Prince  will  in  mind  and  taste 
greatly  resemble  his  grandfather,  the  good  and  great 
Prince  Albert.  Indeed,  England  will  be  proud  of 
her  fifth  King  George,  and  his  fame  shall  descend  to 
posterity  as  one  of  the  best  and  wisest  of  monarchs. 
The  position  of  Jupiter  signifies  a  very  prosperous 
and  peaceful  reign." 

The  last  paragraph  scarcely  fulfils  present-day  con- 
ditions, but  then  King  George  may  live  so  long  that 
the  present  war  may  become  but  an  incident  in  an 
otherwise  peaceful  and  wise  reign. 

Several  other  children  were  born  to  the  Princess, 
of  which  Louise  and  Victoria,  both  belonging  to  this 
decade,  survived.  Princess  Alice's  first  daughter  saw 
the  light  at  Windsor  in  April  1863 ;  the  Crown  Princess 
of  Germany  was  not  idle ;  while  Princess  Helena  and 


66    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

the  Duchess  of  Teck  both  did  their  duty  by  the 
State. 

Among  those  who  died  were  four  veterans :  the  old 
enemies  Palmerston  and  Stockmar,  also  King  Leopold 
and  Queen  Amelie  of  France.  Of  the  four  Pam  had 
had  the  most  successful  life,  for  one  cannot  find  that 
he  had  known  fear,  and  he  alone  of  the  four  possessed 
wit.  Stockmar  was  hypochondriacal ;  all  his  life  he 
had  feared  for  his  health,  until  at  last  he  lost  it.  The 
Queen  went  to  see  him  in  1862,  and  together  they 
talked  and  wept  over  the  dead  prince,  Stockmar 
breaking  out  one  evening  in  deep  lamentations, 
reproaching  himself  with  being  alive,  and  saying— 

"  Ah,  my  dear  Prince,  my  good  Prince,  how  happy 
I  shall  be  to  see  you  again !  That  will  not  be  long 
to  wait." 

It  was  not  long,  for  he  died  the  next  year,  before 
the  man  whom  he  had  always  regarded  as  an  enemy 
and  that  other  whom  he  now  loved  best  in  the  world, 
King  Leopold. 

"  In  full  activity,  as  a  soldier  at  the  breach," 
Palmerston  died  in  October  1865,  and,  in  spite  of 
her  long  antagonism,  it  was  at  the  wish  of  the  Queen 
that  he  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey.  The 
funeral  service  was  dramatic.  The  hearse,  which  was, 
as  usual,  a  forest  of  nodding  plumes,  was  followed  by 
solemn  royal  carriages,  and  then  by  gaudy  mayoral 
coaches,  brought  from  all  over  England  and  contain- 
ing one  hundred  and  forty  costumed  corporations. 
This  Cortege,  like  some  huge,  primeval  saurian  crawl- 
ing to  its  fossil  bed,  slowly  went  to  the  Abbey  through 


FAMILY  GAINS  AND  LOSSES          67 

sunshine;  but  during  the  ceremony  there  a  storm 
broke,  rain  fell  heavily,  wind  howled,  and  in  that 
darkness — so  dark  that  the  clergyman  was  nearly 
invisible — the  body  was  lowered.  When  the  grave 
was  covered  the  sun  came  out  again. 

Pam  was  eighty -one,  and  in  some  ways  still  young, 
active  and  occupied  to  the  last  week  of  his  life.  I 
have  been  told  a  curious  story  of  the  way  in  which 
he  received  his  bootmaker,  named  Seton.  An  ap- 
pointment would  be  made,  and  Seton  would  be  shown 
into  the  room  where  Palmerston  was  standing  at  a 
high  desk,  writing.  The  footman  would  put  a  stool 
to  the  right  and  the  statesman's  foot  would  be  placed 
on  it  and  measured,  the  stool  being  then  placed  in 
position  for  the  left  foot.  Seton  would  then  go  away 
without  having  received  a  word  from  his  customer. 
This  had  gone  on  for  twenty  years,  during  which  the 
two  had  never  spoken  to  each  other. 

This  bootmaker,  well  known  in  his  day,  also  served 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  the  first  time  he  went  to 
Marlboro  ugh  House  he  was  shown  into  a  room  and 
left  to  wait.  About  forty  minutes  later  the  Prince 
came  in,  and,  seeing  a  stranger,  asked — 

''  Who  are  you?  " 

"  I  have  come  to  measure  your  Royal  Highness  for 
a  pair  of  boots,"  was  the  reply. 

Albert  Edward  rang  the  bell  sharply,  and  said  to 
the  servant,  "  How  is  it  that  Mr.  Seton  has  been  kept 
waiting  here  forty  minutes  and  you  did  not  tell  me? 
Let  it  never  occur  again." 

But  then   the    Prince   was   not   quite   so   seriously 


68     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

occupied  as  his  Prime  Minister.  Palmerston  pos- 
sessed a  terse  wit  which  sometimes  flashed  across  the 
dismal  speeches  of  the  House.  Thus,  when  some  one 
was  boringly  enumerating  things  which  we  owe  to  the 
Jews,  Pam  replied — 

"  I  quite  agree  with  the  honourable  gentleman ; 
many  of  us  owe  a  great  deal  to  the  Jews." 

A  lady  once  told  him  that  her  maid  objected  to 
going  to  the  Isle  of  Wight  again  because  its  climate 
was  not  embracing  enough.  "  Now  what  would  you 
do  with  such  a  woman  ? "  she  asked. 

:<  Take  her  to  the  Isle  of  Man  next  time,"  was  the 
prompt  response.1 

Leopold  of  Belgium  died  in  December  1865,  much 
to  Victoria's  sorrow.  At  one  time  he  was  the  most 
devoted  friend  of  France,  but  in  his  later  life  he 
became  intensely  suspicious  of  Louis  Napoleon, 
having  been  worked  on  by  German  intrigue  to  that 
end,  for  Bismarck,  too,  feared  France,  and  started  the 
policy  of  isolating  her  in  Europe.  It  was  a  successful 
policy  both  with  Belgium  and  England,  for  as  long 
as  Victoria  lived  there  was  no  confidence  between  the 
two  countries.  As  for  Leopold,  he  lived  in  terror  of 
Napoleon,  and  constantly  raised  the  cry  that  the  latter 
intended  to  annex  Belgium.  He  also  did  much  in 
influencing  Victoria  against  her  neighbour,  continually 
alarming'  her  ministers  and  fostering  English  distrust 

O  *-^  O 

of  the  French. 

Early  the  next  year  ex-Queen  Marie  Amelie,  aged 
eighty-two,  was  buried  at  Weybridge,  her  body  being 

1  Notes  from  a  Diary.     By  Grant  Duff. 


FAMILY  GAINS  AND  LOSSES         69 

followed  to  the  grave  by  princes,  ambassadors  and 
ministers  from  almost  every  country  in  Europe,  as  well 
as  from  Brazil  and  Mexico. 

In  June  1867  Maximilian,  Emperor  of  Mexico,  was 
shot  by  his  own  subjects.  His  wife  was  the  Queen's 
cousin,  Charlotte,  daughter  of  King  Leopold,  of  whom 
she  had  been  very  fond.  Charlotte  came  to  Europe 
in  1866,  hoping  to  turn  Napoleon  from  his  purpose 
of  withdrawing  all  French  troops  from  Mexico  and 
so  leaving  her  husband  unprotected,  and  she  went 
mad  at  her  want  of  success.  She  is  still  alive,  though 
it  is  doubtful  whether  her  brother's  stories  of  her"  con- 
tinued insanity  were  true,  for  he  had  secured  her  whole 
fortune  and  it  was  to  his  interest  to  keep  her  in 
seclusion.  The  house  in  which  she  lives  was  entered 
by  Germans  in  the  autumn  of  1914. 

What  a  farce  is  the  supreme  position  in  a  country ! 
Queen  Amelie  had  fled  for  her  life  from  her  subjects 
and  lived  eighteen  years  in  exile;  Leopold  lived  in 
fear  of  the  monarch  next  door  to  him;  and  Louis 
Napoleon  lived  in  terror  of  assassination  by  the 
dagger.  When  President  Lincoln  was  shot  in  1865 
Napoleon's  shattered  nerves  made  him  leave  Paris 
abruptly  for  Algiers,  under  the  excuse  of  drinking  the 
waters  there,  but — it  was  said — in  reality  to  get  used 
to  the  idea  that  a  pistol  was  a  good  assassination 
weapon — a  fact  which  he  had  always  contended — and 
also  to  realize  that  the  chances  against  him  were  now 
doubled. 


CHAPTER    VI 

ROYAL    SECLUSION 

" '  Nay,  let  my  people  see  me  !  '     Kind 

Was  she  whom  then  our  cheers  were  greeting, 
Now,  would  that  Lady  bear  in  mind 
That  words  like  those  will  bear  repeating?  " 

Shirley  Brooks  in  '  Punch.' 

"Prince  Albert,  the  oppressively  good." — Current  Press. 

AFTER  the  death  of  Prince  Albert,  Queen  Victoria 
practically  buried  herself;  she  did  not  put  her  body 
under  the  ground,  it  is  true,  but  what  was  almost 
equally  bad  she  enclosed  her  mind  in  stone,  in 
mausoleums,  statues,  cairns  and  other  mori  memento, 
and  to  the  living  world  she  became  as  dead  as  a  nun. 
To  her  family  she  still  partly  lived,  and  that  family 
no  doubt  hoped  to  see  her  some  day  again  fully  alive, 
but  they  could  scarcely  have  believed  that  two  dozen 
years  would  pass  before  Victoria  would  begin  to  recog- 
nize the  ordinary  amenities  of  social  life.  Yet  so  it 
was,  and  this  long  self-indulgence  in  a  life  of  privacy 
while  clinging  to  the  most  public  post  in  the  kingdom, 
explains  to  a  great  extent  why  the  nation  generally 
feel  a  far  deeper  personal  affection  for  Edward  VII 
than  for  Queen  Victoria.  The  fact  that  she  was  a 
woman  saved  the  Queen  from  the  full  effect  of  her  sins 

of  omission.    Men  were  imbued  by  that  unhealthy  sense 

70 


ROYAL   SECLUSION  71 

of  what  is  called  chivalry  for  womanhood  which  allows 
of  two  standards  of  right  and  honour  for  the  two  sexes ; 
the  men  of  the  time  were  also  suspicious  that  they 
could  not  understand  such  an  unreasonable  creature 
as  woman,  and  that  it  was  better  to  accede  to  her  whims 
than  dispute  them.  "  Men  must  work  and  women 
must  weep  "  explained  the  whole  situation,  and  that 
Queen  Victoria  did  weep  and  nurse  her  grief  con- 
tinually seemed  for  a  time  sufficient  excuse  for  the 
neglect  of  all  her  public  work.  But  there  is  not  the 
slightest  doubt  that  had  a  king  in  the  same  circum- 
stances indulged  his  personal  wishes  to  the  exclusion 
of  public  duty,  as  did  Queen  Victoria,  that  which  was 
nearly  a  revolution  in  1867  would  have  been  com- 
pletely so,  for  the  discontent  and  anger  of  the  people 
was  by  that  time  intense. 

Another  quality  which  helped  to  save  the  situation 
was  the  Queen's  sentimental  nature,  for  it  was  an  age 
of  sentimentality,  of  feminine,  or  rather,  to  use  the 
then  current  word,  "  female  "  foolishness  and  mascu- 
line superiority,  an  age  when  "  females "  tied  their 
husband's  neckties  and  laced  their  boots,  when  the 
"male"  thought  he  was  justified  in  swearing  at  his 
wife  if  she  neglected  to  put  the  studs  into  his  shirt, 
and  expected  her  to  consider  herself  fully  compensated 
by  his  protection. 

The  Queen  was  intensely  sentimental.  To  the  end 
of  her  days  she  wrote  birthday  greetings  to  every  child, 
grandchild  and  great-grandchild,  as  well  as  to  many 
others;  she  mourned  all  deaths  on  the  right  anniver- 
saries, and  remembered  all  the  marriages.  With  such 


72    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

a  nature  it  was  understandable  that  she  should  assume 
perpetual  mourning  for  the  Prince  Consort.  At  first 
her  people  responded  by  putting  up  statues  to  his 
memory,  and  nothing  roused  her  so  much  as  these 
evidences  of  sympathy.  Each  one  was  a  justification 
for  her  continued  mourning,  and  she  commemorated 
the  bereavement  in  every  possible  fashion.  Thus 
early  in  her  widowhood  she  summoned  Noel  Paton  to 
Windsor  to  arrange  the  painting  of  a  picture  of  "  The 
Bereaved  Family,"  and  later  she  broke  through  her 
new  habit  of  seclusion  sufficiently  to  go  to  the  artist's 
studio  to  see  how  the  picture  was  progressing.  Find- 
ing his  little  boy  there,  and  always  loving  children, 
she  is  said  to  have  asked  him  if  he  would  not  kiss 
her,  to  which  he  replied  "  No."  Being  asked  if  he 
knew  who  she  was,  he  answered — 

'  Yes,  you  are  the  Queen  of  England,  and  you  killed 
Queen  Mary,  so  I  don't  love  you."  An  answer  which 
probably  did  not  displease  her,  as  she,  too,  disliked 
Queen  Elizabeth  for  the  same  cause. 

Early  in  1862  great  exertions  were  being  made  to 
raise  subscriptions  for  an  Albert  memorial  in  London, 
which  were  responded  to  but  slowly ;  and  to  his  memory 
the  Royal  Horticultural  Gardens  were  inaugurated  by 
the  Prince  of  Wales.  The  Queen  paid  her  first  visit 
since  her  widowhood  to  the  metropolis  the  following 
year  to  see  them. 

Her  first  care  was  the  mausoleum  at  Frogmore, 
which  was  built  as  a  cross  with  the  funeral  cell  in  the 
centre,  that  part  being  lit  by  windows  in  the  clerestory. 
The  roof  was  of  copper,  bearing  a  square  tower  sur- 


ROYAL  SECLUSION  73 

mounted  by  a  cross.  The  doorway  was  guarded  by 
monoliths  of  Aberdeen  granite,  and  the  whole  exterior 
was  faced  with  a  mixture  of  granite  from  Aberdeen 
and  Guernsey. 

The  Queen  was  never  tired  of  adding  to  the  interior 
adornments  of  this  mourning  house,  I  had  almost  said 
this  place  of  worship,  until  in  1890  its  effect  was 
sumptuous  rather  than  austere.  A  great  picture  of 
Christ  emerging  from  the  tomb,  with  Roman  soldiers 
hiding  under  their  shields  in  fear  at  the  triumph  over 
death,  hung  over  the  altar;  on  one  side  was  a  picture 
of  the  crucifixion,  and  on  the  other  one  of  the  visit 
of  the  disciples  to  the  empty  tomb.  Four  bronze 
angels  supported  the  sarcophagus,  upon  which  rested 
a  recumbent  figure  of  the  Prince  in  white  marble.  A 
beautiful  marble  statue  of  Princess  Alice  later  occu- 
pied a  recess.  Before  the  tomb  were  placed  three 
rows  of  chairs,  the  first  devoted  to  the  Queen  and 
her  children,  the  second  to  lesser  royalties  and  prin- 
cipal ladies,  and  the  third  to  other  ladies  and 
gentlemen.  Such  was  the  spot  which  for  a  long  time 
became  the  centre  of  the  Queen's  death-in-life. 

In  the  Highlands  a  cairn,  its  base  forty  feet  square, 
was  raised  on  Craig  Lowrigan,  where  it  could  be  seen 
"  all  down  the  valley."  "  I  and  my  poor  six  orphans 
all  placed  stones  on  it;  and  our  initials  as  well  as  those 
of  the  three  absent  ones  are  to  be  carved  on  the  stones 
all  round  it,"  wrote  Victoria.  This  cairn  was  the  sub- 
ject of  a  stupid  sermon  by  a  Dr.  Candlish,  a  leading 
light  among  the  Free  Kirkers  who  took  umbrage  at  the 
inscription,  from  The  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  "  He  being 


74    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

made  perfect  in  a  short  time  fulfilled  a  long  time.  For 
his  soul  pleased  the  Lord;  therefore  hastened  He  to 
take  him  away  from  among  the  wicked." 

The  Free  Kirkers,  having  justly  desired  to  choose 
their  own  pastors,  had  years  before  rebelled  against 
lay  patronage,  and  had  provoked  the  determined 
opposition  of  the  Queen,  who  considered  that  the  royal 
prerogative  was  in  essence  being  assailed.  Therefore 
they  were  ready  to  condemn  all  English  ecclesiasti- 
cism,  and  Candlish  declared  that  this  text  was  a 
studied  insult  to  the  "  Bible  that  Scotland  loved,"  to 
the  doctrine  of  Inspiration,  to  Scotland  and  [which 
was  certainly  true]  to  the  generation  from  which  the 
Prince  had  been  removed  by  death.  It  was  "  shabby, 
flimsy,  a  wretched  shred  and  a  sham  without  even  an 
allusion  to  blessed  immortality." 

The  English  were  aghast  at  this  attack  on  the 
Queen,  and  Candlish  had  to  publish  an  apology,  which 
was  really  almost  as  bad  as  the  offence,  as  he  declared 
that  he  did  not  for  a  moment  think  that  the  Queen 
had  chosen  such  a  text,  but  had  been  led  away  by  the 
evil  advice  of  English  clergymen. 

The  Scot  is  a  cute  person,  and  a  religious  publisher 
seized  this  opportunity  of  pushing  a  new  edition  of 
the  Bible  which  he  had  ready,  with  this  flourish  of 
advertising  verbosity— 

"A  copy  has  been  presented  to  the  Prince  of  Wales 
and  the  Princess  Alexandra  through  Lord  Shaftesbury 
— who  have  been  graciously  pleased,  especially  the 
Princess,  that  brightest  of  orbs  in  the  firmament  of 
living  beauty,  to  express  high  admiration  of  its" 


ROYAL  SECLUSION  75 

Truly  religion  in  the  beloved  Highlands  was  on  its 
trial ! 

It  was  in  the  autumn  of  1863  and  at  Aberdeen  that 
Victoria  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  public,  and  then 
mutely,  to  unveil  a  statue  to  Albert,  and  to  declare 
through  the  lips  of  Sir  George  Grey  that  she  had  come 
"to  proclaim  in  public  the  unbounded  reverence  and 
admiration,  the  devoted  love  that  fills  my  heart  for 
him  whose  loss  must  throw  a  lasting  gloom  over  all 
my  future  life." 

Such  words  in  such  circumstances  would  to-day 
seem  greatly  wanting  in  reticence  and  dignity,  but 
upon  this  subject  Victoria  knew  no  reticence,  and  she 
followed  this  unveiling  and  declaration  with  many 
other  events  of  the  same  kind  both  in  Scotland  and 
England. 

In  time  "  statues  to  the  Prince  almost  covered  the 
land,"  as  Gladstone  once  said,  and  even  Ireland  tried 
to  do  its  best.  But  at  Dublin  the  movement  met  a 
check.  The  Irish  knew  themselves  neglected  by 
rulers  and  governing  classes,  and  the  Irish  remember 
even  to  this  day  a  speech  by  Prince  Albert  in  which 
he  said  contemptuously  that  the  Irish  were  entitled  to 
no  more  sympathy  than  were  the  Poles.  The  Fenian 
movement  too,  born  in  Paris  about  1855  of  Irish 
agitators,  and  nursed  in  America,  had  grown  strong 
and  lusty,  so  when  the  Mayor  of  Dublin  called  a 
meeting  on  February  8,  1863,  to  arrange  to  put  up  a 
Prince  Albert  statue  on  College  Green,  a  man  named 
Sullivan  made  a  proposal  that  the  statue  of  Grattan 
should  occupy  the  spot,  saying  that  Dublin  people 


76    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

would  hate   the  Prince's  statue  and  hiss  it  as   they 
passed. 

Sullivan's  motion  was  defeated,  but  he  called  a 
meeting  of  protest  in  the  Rotunda,  which  was  said  to 
have  been  attended  by  40,000  people.  Now  the  pro- 
testor himself  was  regarded  as  a  traitor  by  the  majority 
of  the  Fenians,  and  when  he  began  to  speak  the 
moiety  of  the  audience  which  had  got  into  the  hall, 
among  the  leaders  of  whom  was  O'Donovan  Rossa, 
went  for  him,  and  also  for  the  O'Donoghue,  M.P.,  who 
was  chairman  of  the  meeting.  These  two  flew  for 
their  lives,  hid  for  two  hours  in  some  private  room  and 
were  rescued  by  the  police.  In  the  great  hall  the 
speaking  had  occupied  only  a  few  minutes,  but  for  two 
hours  a  free  fight  raged,  being  probably  much  enjoyed 
by  the  combatants. 

That  was  the  end  of  the  Prince's  statue  on  the 
Green,  and  years  later  one  was  erected  there  to 
Grattan,  the  work  being  done  by  J.  H.  Foley.  A 
statue  was  eventually  erected  to  Albert  on  Leinster 
Lawn,  which  forms  one  side  of  Merrion  Square  and 
belongs  to  the  Royal  Dublin  Society.  It  was  pro- 
tected by  high  railings,  yet  one  Sunday  night  in  1872 
an  attempt  was  made  to  blow  it  up  with  dynamite. 

The  impression  left  upon  the  mind  of  the  Queen 
was  that  the  Irish  had  flouted  and  insulted  the  memory 
of  her  adored  husband,  and  it  was  over  thirty-six 
years  before  she  showed  any  signs  of  forgiving  the 
incident. 

In  1866  the  Queen  sent  to  her  eldest  grandchild, 
William  of  Prussia,  a  silver  statuette  of  his  grand- 


ROYAL   SECLUSION  77 

father,  three  feet  high,  representing  him  as  a  hero 
conquering  sin. 

There  was  probably  a  double  reason  for  this,  for 
the  beloved  first  grandchild  was  showing  an  unamiable 
spirit.  Sir  Charles  Halle  described  him  paradoxically 
as  charming,  but  a  devil.  The  little  prince  had 
entered  the  Queen's  room  just  as  Sir  Charles  was 
leaving  it,  and  Victoria  told  him  to  salute  her  visitor. 
He  refused,  and  she  asked  him  what  his  mamma  would 
say  if  she  were  told  that  her  little  boy  was  impolite. 
However,  he  would  not  move.  The  Queen  insisted 
that  he  should  obey,  and  the  delightful  eight-year- 
old  boy,  looking  straight  into  her  eyes,  said — 

"  I  will  not !  " 

This  was  followed  by  a  spanking,  or  as  the  musician 
put  it,  "  a  veritable  struggle  and  a  very  painful  one 
took  place  between  grandmother  and  grandson.  At 
last  the  child  yielded  and  made  a  deep  bow." 

There  is  another  story,  probably  belonging  to  a 
somewhat  earlier  year,  of  how  little  William,  being 
naughty  at  the  luncheon-table,  was  sentenced  to  dis- 
appear beneath  the  table  until  the  meal  was  over. 
Being  at  last  allowed  to  return  to  dining-room  society, 
he  emerged — stark  naked. 

The  fact  that  Queen  Victoria,  while  repudiating  all 
public  activity,  found  energy  to  visit  Netley  Hospital 
and  the  Consumptive  Hospital  at  Brompton  early  in 
her  widowhood,  these  being  places  the  (foundation 
stones  of  which  had  been  laid  by  the  Prince ;  that  she 
instituted  the  Albert  medal  as  an  award  to  those  who 
saved  life  at  sea;  that  for  years  her  chief  personal 


78     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

interest  was  in  planning  and  unveiling  memorials ;  all 
these  indicate  the  state  of  her  mind.  She  had  fallen 
in  love  with  grief,  and  her  only  pleasure  came  from 
indulging  it. 

As  the  years  passed  the  public  grew  tired  of  this 
insistence  upon  woe.  It  had  wept  with  her  at  first  and 
had  been  roused  to  a  sympathetic,  protective  love  for 
her.  The  journals  had  given  the  Prince  such  paeans 
of  praise  as  a  winding-sheet  as  were  not  later  accorded 
to  Victoria  herself.  This  was  a  reaction  of  feeling  in 
regard  to  the  popular  prejudice  against  the  Prince 
which  had  troubled  all  his  English  life,  and  the  re- 
action was  caused  by  the  suddenness  of  the  catastrophe 
and  a  true  appreciation  of  the  Queen's  grief;  but  it 
passed,  and  the  public's  opinion  of  the  Prince  Consort 
gradually  veered  round  to  what  it  had  been,  largely, 
at  the  time,  because  of  the  resentment  felt  at  Victoria's 
attitude  in  showing  always  that  the  dead  man  was  of 
more  importance  to  her  than  her  living  subjects. 

But  Queen  Victoria  thought  that  that  evanescent 
mood  had  come  to  stay,  and  that  her  people's  first  care 
should  be  that  she  should  be  left  in  peace  with  her 
sorrow.  So  for  the  first  three  or  four  years  she  saw 
no  one  but  her  children  and  usual  attendants;  she 
refused  to  go  to  London  or  to  take  up  any  Court 
functions — Albert  had  always  hated  London,  and  she 
too  disliked  it.  She  grew  morbid  and  self-absorbed, 
and  suffered  keenly  from  self-consciousness  on  the 
very  rare  occasions  when  she  did  appear  before 
strangers,  generally  to  unveil  a  statue. 

A  ball  or  so,  a  concert  or  so,  a  drawing-room  or  so, 


ROYAL  SECLUSION  79 

each  with  a  princess  as  hostess,  made  the  courtly 
season,  and  the  tradesmen  of  London  began  to  com- 
plain, the  papers  began  to  urge  the  Queen  to  come 
into  view,  and  the  people  began  to  say,  "Why  have 
a  queen  at  all  ?  "  Victoria  paid  no  heed,  for  she  had 
a  large  share  of  that  firmness  which  the  vulgar  call 
obstinacy.  She  also  possessed  an  absolute  conviction 
that  when  she  had  chosen  a  course  she  could  not  be 
wrong,  her  decision,  being  hers,  must  be  right.  There- 
fore she  refused  all  concessions  and  continued  in  her 
isolated  position.  She  saw  nothing  of  the  change 
coming  over  the  minds  of  men,  of  the  republican 
feeling  which  was  permeating  the  working  classes 
under  Palmerston's  contempt  for  all  schemes  of 
political  reform,  of  the  hatred  which  was  leavening 
Ireland  against  England  because  of  the  mixed  policy 
of  neglect  and  tyranny  which  obtained  there.  She 
only  saw,  when  complaints  were  made,  that  her  people 
were  unjust  and  cruel  to  her  personally,  that  repub- 
licanism was  a  sin  against  Divine  Right,  and  that  the 
Irish  were  very  wicked  people.  Such  warnings  as  the 
following,  published  by  The  Times,  she  regarded  as 
pure  extravagance — 

"  It  may  be  that  in  time  London  may  accustom  itself 
to  do  without  the  Palace,  but  it  is  not  desirable  that 
we  should  attain  that  point  of  republican  simplicity. 
...  No  reigning  house  can  afford  to  confirm  in  their 
view  those  who  suggest  that  the  throne  is  only  an 
antiquarian  relic  and  royalty  itself  a  ceremony,  who 
think  that  the  less  that  is  seen  and  heard  of  a  Court 
the  better." 


80    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

In  1864  she  made  the  concession  of  allowing  her 
birthday  to  be  kept  with  the  usual  honours,  she  herself 
being  at  Balmoral.  The  next  year  she  announced  that 
she  would  hold  two  Courts,  one  for  diplomatists  and 
the  second  for  such  distinguished  persons  as  she 
wished  to  invite.  At  once  the  hope  arose  that  Buck- 
ingham Palace  would  again  become  inhabited  and  the 
Court  recover  from  its  state  of  suspended  animation, 
but  there  was  a  tinge  of  doubt  and  bitterness  mixed 
with  the  hope. 

The  first  reception,  that  to  the  diplomatists,  had  an 
unfortunate  introduction;  the  officials  who  arranged  it 
had  been  four  years  out  of  practice,  and  had  forgotten 
the  formula.  They  sent  out  the  invitations  in  some- 
thing like  this  form — 

'  The  Queen  will  graciously  receive  the  Corps 
Diplomatique,  male  and  female,  at  a  Court  to  be  held 
at  Buckingham  Palace,"  etc. 

Such  a  barbarism  could  not  pass  unnoticed,  and  the 
invited  gentlemen  sent  their  cards  to  their  respective 
Courts,  either  as  curiosities  or  to  ask  for  guidance,  so 
the  blunder  was  known  all  over  the  world.  Victoria 
must  have  felt  much  mortified,  and  though  all  those 
responsible  tried  to  shift  the  fault  on  to  each  other's 
shoulders,  nobody  dared  to  suggest  that  it  was  want 
of  usage  which  occasioned  the  stupidity. 

Two  swallows  do  not  make  a  summer,  and  these  two 
receptions  did  not  constitute  a  season;  the  grumbles 
and  entreaties  continued,  and  in  September  1865 
Punch  published  its  renowned  cartoon  of  "  Hermione," 
in  which  Pauline,  in  the  form  of  Britannia,  is  shown 


ROYAL  SECLUSION  81 

drawing  back  some  curtains,  thus  revealing  a  statue 
of  the  Queen,  crowned  and  wearing  her  robes  of 
State. 

:  'Tis  time  !     Descend  !     Be  stone  no  more  !  "  says 
Pauline. 

At  last,  when  public  comment  became  too  loud  and 
sustained,  Victoria  published  a  definite  statement  of 
her  intentions,  declaring  that  the  idea  that  she  was 
intending  to  resume  her  place  as  head  of  society  could 
not  be  too  explicitly  contradicted;  that  she  had  other 
and  higher  duties  to  perform,  which  weighed  unceas- 
ingly upon  her,  overwhelming  her  with  work  and 
anxiety;  that  she  had  laboured  to  discharge  those 
duties  till  her  health  and  strength  had  been  impaired. 
'  To  call  upon  her  to  undergo,  in  addition,  the  fatigue 
of  those  mere  State  ceremonies  which  can  be  equally 
well  performed  by  other  members  of  her  family,  is 
to  ask  her  to  run  the  risk  of  entirely  disabling  herself 
for  the  discharge  of  those  other  duties  which  cannot 
be  neglected  without  serious  injury  to  the  public 
interest."  The  statement  ended  with  her  saying  that 
she  would  do  what  she  could — in  the  manner  least 
trying  to  her  health,  strength  and  spirits  to  give 
support  to  society  and  encouragement  to  trade. 

This  pronouncement  rather  increased  than  allayed 
the  dissatisfaction,  for  the  popular  mind  could  not 
understand  that  any  work  should  make  a  recluse  of 
the  most  public  official  in  the  whole  country.  The 
difference  between  the  two  standpoints  lay  in  the  fact 
that  England  regards  the  Sovereign  as  the  Crown  of 
the  State,  while  Victoria  regarded  herself  not  as  the 


82    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Crown  alone  but  as  the  foundation,  a  somewhat  con- 
tradictory view,  which  I  doubt  if  even  she  could  have 
explained. 

What  was  this  work  in  which  she  buried  herself? 

It  was  work  which  had  gradually  fallen  into  Albert- 
Victoria's  hands  through  the  .Germanic  ideals  of  the 
Prince  Consort,  who,  under  Stockmar's  tuition,  con- 
sistently mistook  the  functions  of  royalty  in  England. 
He  demanded  that  nothing  of  any  sort  should  be  done 
in  the  Cabinet,  or  in  Parliament,  until  it  had  received 
full  consideration  by  the  Queen;  in  actual  fact  he 
asked  that  the  Constitution  should  become  an  absolute 
Monarchy,  that  no  dispatches  should  be  sent  away 
until  they  had  been  studied  by  the  Queen,  which  really 
meant  by  himself — and  altered  in  agreement  with  her 
wishes.  This  applied  not  only  to  important  matters 
but  to  everything,  to  the  merest  triviality  of  legisla- 
tion ;  but  foreign  diplomacy  was  regarded  as  particu- 
larly the  prerogative  of  the  Sovereign — with  a  view  to 
upholding  Monarchy  in  Europe. 

When  the  Prince  died  Victoria  gathered  all  this 
work  into  her  own  hands,  and  at  the  same  time  felt 
acutely  that  it  was  no  fit  work  for  a  woman,  for  she 
had  no  belief  in  the  intellectual  capacity  of  her  sex. 
Thus,  while  she  set  herself  to  perform  a  perfectly 
unnecessary,  useless  and  impossible  task,  she  pitied 
herself  with  an  intensity  which  was  pathetic.  Writing 
to  Theodore  Martin,  she  asked  him  to  contradict  the 
idea  that  it  was  the  Queen's  sorrow  which  kept  her 
secluded.  "  It  is  her  overwhelming  work  and  her 
health  which  is  greatly  shaken  by  her  sorrow,  and  the 


QUEKN  VICTORIA  IN   1864 
After  a  painting  by  Winterhalter 


ROYAL  SECLUSION  83 

totally  overwhelming  amount  of  work  and  responsi- 
bility— work  which  she  feels  really  wears  her  out. 
Alice  Helps  is  wonder-struck  at  the  Queen's  room, 
and  if  Mrs.  Martin  will  look  at  it  she  can  tell  Mr. 
Martin  what  surrounds  her.  From  the  hour  she  gets 
out  of  bed  until  she  gets  into  it  again  there  is 
work,  work,  work,  letter-boxes,  questions,  etc.,  which 
are  dreadfully  exhausting — and  if  she  had  not 
comparative  rest  and  quiet  in  the  evening  she  would 
most  likely  not  be  alive.  Her  brain  is  constantly 
overtaxed." 

Mrs.  Martin  went  to  look  at  the  royal  workroom, 
and  wrote  of  "  the  piles  of  dispatch-boxes,  all  of  them 
full  of  work  for  her,  and  all  requiring  immediate 
attention ;  and  this  goes  on  from  day  to  day.  It  is  the 
Queen's  great  aim  to  follow  the  Prince's  plan,  which 
was  to  sign  nothing  until  he  had  read  and  made  notes 
upon  what  he  signed.  You  may  imagine  how  such 
conscientiousness  swallows  up  the  royal  leisure." 

Conscientiousness  is  admirable,  when  rightly  used; 
in  this  case,  however,  though  it  justified  itself  to  the 
Queen,  it  was  exercised  to  the  detriment  of  the  country. 
Upon  all  these  papers  dealing  with  the  government  of 
the  country  the  most  expert  political  brains  of  which- 
ever party  was  in  power  had  been  exercised,  yet  each 
question  had,  in  every  stage  of  its  development,  to 
be  reduced  to  the  comprehension  of  a  single  mind, 
and  every  movement  of  its  passage  had  to  be  retarded 
while  that  mind  was  not  only  grappling  with  it,  but 
demanding  alterations.  Had  Victoria's  intellect  been 
equal  to  that  of  her  most  renowned  Minister  the 


84    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

situation  would  still  have  been  difficult;  as  it  was  it 
was  often  painful,  leading  to  an  intense  royal  dislike 
of  some  statesmen,  and  a  system  of  unashamed  flattery 
on  the  part  of  others  which,  while  oiling  the  wheels  of 
the  machine,  was  unperceived  by  Victoria. 

It  does  seem  as  if  the  poor  Queen,  in  her  desire  to 
continue  to  rule  England  according  to  the  ideals  of 
the  Prince  Consort  and  Stockmar,  had  set  herself  an 
overwhelming  task,  to  use  her  own  word.  But  there 
was,  entirely  unknown  to  her  general  subjects,  and  for 
a  long  time  to  her  Cabinet,  an  alleviation  of  the 
situation.  From  the  beginning  of  her  widowhood  she 
had  called  upon  some  of  those  who  held  official  posts 
in  her  household  to  help  her  in  these  political  duties. 
The  Hon.  Charles  Grey,  who  had  been  private  secre- 
tary to  Albert,  remained  the  Queen's  private  secretary 
until  his  death  in  1870.  He  and  Sir  Charles  Phipps, 
the  Keeper  of  the  Privy  Purse,  were  deputed  by  her 
to  assist  her  personally  in  the  matter  of  dispatches, 
and  they  had  clerkly  assistants  to  aid  them.  Mr., 
afterwards  Sir  Arthur,  Helps,  Clerk  to  the  Privy 
Council,  advised  her  in  personal  matters,  and  thus 
there  were  a  number  of  people  engaged  in  doing 
the  actual  work  of  which  Victoria  complained.  An 
anonymous  criticism  of  the  Queen  appeared  in  The 
Quarterly  Review  in  April  1891,  the  authorship  of 
which  I  have  seen  ascribed  to  such  diverse  people  as 
Baron  Stockmar's  son  and  Lady  Ponsonby — the  first 
obviously  impossible — which  revealed  much  about  this 
secret  staff. 

'  The   staff,   never  officially   acknowledged   in   the 


ROYAL  SECLUSION  85 

fulness  of  its  functions,  had  to  exercise  the  most  com- 
plete self-effacement  and  became  in  eifect  an  expan- 
sion of  the  Queen's  personal  power  in  action.  The 
watchword  of  the  lives  of  her  private  secretaries  was 
devotion  to  the  will  of  the  Queen.  The  secret  of  the 
power  they  exercised  was  faithfully  kept  from  the 
public,  and  will  always  be  kept.  These  men  gave 
their  lives  to  her  service,  without  demur  or  reserve, 
and  it  is  as  much  to  her  honour  as  it  is  to  theirs,  that 
she  inspired  such  complete  devotion  in  men  of  such 
remarkable  gifts." 

Later  General  Ponsonby,  Sir  Thomas  Biddulph, 
Sir  Arthur  Bigge  and  Sir  Fleetwood  Edwards  became 
members  of  the  advising  staff.  These  men  were 
required  to  belong  to  no  party,  to  have  no  politics  and 
to  show  in  their  political  work  no  bias,  and  they  loyally 
succeeded  in  conforming  to  these  conditions.  Beacons- 
field  once  said  he  believed  General  Ponsonby  to  be  a 
Whig,  but  could  not  tell  what  he  really  was,  adding, 
"  I  can  only  say  that  I  could  not  wish  my  case  stated 
to  the  Queen  better  than  her  private  secretary  does 
it."  Gladstone  also  paid  the  General  a  high  tribute 
of  the  same  kind. 

These  men,  forming  a  sort  of  secret  cabinet,  read 
through  all  dispatches  and  digested  all  political 
questions,  kept  watch  upon  all  matters  of  public 
importance,  and  had  the  history  and  analysis  of  events 
ready  scheduled  for  Victoria's  use  should  she  call  for 
it.  Thus  her  position  was  not  so  bad  as  she  in  her 
self-commiseration  thought  it  was,  and  she  found 
plenty  of  time  to  write  her  numberless  family  letters, 


86    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

keep  in  touch  with  a  hundred  and  one  schemes  for 
perpetuating  the  Prince's  memory,  and  carry  on 
various  literary  labours  of  her  own. 

The  first  of  the  books  which  she  caused  to  be  pub- 
lished— in  1862 — was  a  collection  of  her  husband's 
speeches,  Arthur  Helps  doing  the  actual  preparation 
under  her  keen  supervision.  Then  came  the  compila- 
tion of  the  volume  entitled  Early  Years  of  H.R.H . 
the  Prince  Consort,  in  which  Charles  Grey  helped 
her,  the  Queen  sorting  and  choosing  all  the  material. 
This  work  proved  so  congenial  to  her  that  she  looked 
for  more,  and  projected  an  important  biography  of 
the  Prince.  As  Sir  Charles  Grey  found  it  impossible 
again  to  combine  his  heavy  secretarial  duties  with 
biographical  work,  she  went  for  advice  to  Arthur 
Helps,  a  man  of  high  literary  attainment.  He  also 
being  much  occupied,  suggested  Theodore  Martin  as 
a  likely  man  for  the  task,  and  under  that  gentleman's 
editorship  the  five  huge  volumes  of  the  Life  were 
written.  Theodore  Martin  refused  to  take  a  penny 
for  his  work,  doing  it  entirely  as  a  labour  of  love, 
thereby  receiving  the  friendship  of  the  Queen  and 
a  knighthood.  For  this  book  Victoria  chose  all  letters 
and  documents  and  watched  every  page  of  its  pro- 
gress, allowing  it  to  absorb  much  of  her  time.  The 
first  volume  was  not  published  until  1874,  but  the 
other  four  volumes  followed  quickly. 

A  fourth  book,  and  in  one  way  the  most  important 
of  all,  for  it  was  much  more  widely  read,  and  has 
long  outlasted  the  others,  was  Leaves  from  the  Journal 
of  Our  Life  in  the  Highlands,  being  a  selection  from 


ROYAL   SECLUSION  87 

Victoria's  diary  written  in  her  Balmoral  home.     The 
contents  of  this  were  carefully  chosen  by  her  Majesty, 
and  Arthur  Helps  put  it  together.     It  is,  or  was  in  the 
last  generation,  too  well  known  to  need  description; 
simply  written,   it  is   an  account   of   daily  life   and 
excursions  in  Scotland,  tremendously  laudatory  both 
of  the  scenery  and  the  people,  precise  as  to  the  hour 
and  minute  at  which  everything  was  done,  and  full 
of  allusions  to  the   Prince  :   "  Albert  was  in  perfect 
ecstacies  ...  it  delighted  dear  Albert.  .  .  .  Albert  en- 
joyed it  so  much."    Also  as  Punch — and  other  reviews 
— wickedly  said,  "the  trait  that  seems  to  be  the  most 
prominent  in  her  Majesty's  book  is  the  tea-tray."    One 
paper  solemnly  declared  that  it  was  untrue  that  Sir 
Wilfred   Lawson    intended   to   write    a   diary  of   his 
temperance  work  and  dedicate  it  to  the  Queen  under 
the   title  "  More   (Tea)   Leaves."     The   Royal  party 
seems  to  have  been  a  perpetual  tea-party,  for  wherever 
they  went  or  whatever  happened  the  tea-kettle  was 
always  being  boiled.     At  Balmoral  it  appears  to  have 
been  all  holiday,  for  work  is  never  mentioned  in  the 
book,  which  was  one  that  any  simple-minded  woman 
might  have  written,  making  no  pretensions  to  style; 
but  then,  said  Victoria,  "  How  could  Mr.  Helps  expect 
pains  to  be  taken  when  she  wrote  late  at  night,  suffering 
from  headache  and  exhaustion,  and  in  dreadful  haste 
and  not  for  publication?  " 

However,  it  was  published,  privately  in  1867  and 
publicly  the  next  year,  realizing  something  over 
£30,000,  which  some  paragraphist  gravely  asserted  was 
given  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  who  on  an  inadequate 


88     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

income  was  doing  all  the  royal  State  work.  Thus 
it  will  be  seen  that  while  the  Queen  was  lamenting  that 
her  work  for  her  country  destroyed  her  health,  she 
was  also  deeply  engrossed  in  superintending  four 
books,  three  of  which  appeared  at  the  very  time  that 
she  was  excusing  herself  from  her  public  duties. 


CHAPTER    VII 

SUBJECTS  IN  REVOLT 

"With  a  Court  that  is  given  to  chilling  formality, 

Limited  Monarch  in  name  and  in  deed ; 
It  rests  with  the  people  to  show  hospitality, 

Such  as  consorts  with  the  national  creed." — Anon. 

"  She  closed  her  palace — deputing  the  heir-apparent — to  dwell 
in  a  beautiful  castle  she  possessed  in  a  secluded  and  romantic 
spot,  retaining  about  her  only  a  few  faithful  adherents.  She 
chose  as  her  constant  attendant  a  trusty  and  faithful  henchman 
named  Ivan  Roan,  whose  duty  it  was  to  watch  over  her,  and 
accompany  her  in  her  long  rambles  amidst  the  wild  but  pictur- 
esque scenery  which  surrounded  her  mountain  home." — Queen 
Tresoria  and  her  People.  1867. 

FROM  the  first  year  of  her  widowhood  Queen  Victoria 
went  to  Scotland  twice  a  year,  and  she  gradually 
followed  a  definite  annual  routine.  Christmas  would 
be  spent  at  Osborne,  the  visit  there  not  concluding 
until  well  into  January,  and  even  on  rare  occasions 
until  the  end  of  February.  When  in  later  years  she 
went  abroad,  April  was  the  favourite  month.  In  May 
the  journey  taken  was  to  Balmoral,  for  a  four  weeks' 
visit,  which  generally  ended  about  the  twentieth  of 
June.  Some  time  in  July  the  royal  party  went  to 
Osborne,  whence  in  August  they  travelled  straight  to 
Scotland,  this  autumn  sojourn  in  the  north  varying 
from  six  weeks  to  three  months,  the  longest  stay  there 

being  even  longer  than  that.     Thus  it  would  be  some 

89 


90    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

time  in  November  before  Victoria  returned  to  Windsor, 
and  then,  as  soon  as  the  fatal  fourteenth  of  December 
was  passed,  the  Court  moved  to  Osborne  for  Christmas. 
During  the  whole  twelve  months  the  Queen  would  pass 
a  few  isolated  days  in  her  capital.  Windsor  received 
her  during  the  intervals  between  Scotland  and  Os- 
borne; it  was  not  far  from  London,  and  yet  only  the 
most  pressing  family  reasons  could  at  first  induce  her 
to  make  the  journey  to  town. 

It  had  been  regarded  as  a  sacred  duty  that  the 
Sovereign  should  always  open  Parliament  in  person. 
William  IV  was  the  first  to  fail  to  comply  with  it,  but 
only  in  the  last  year  of  his  reign;  and  he  was  ad- 
monished that  his  absence  contravened  constitutional 
principle. 

Our  Queen,  however,  resolutely  refused  to  take  this 
slight  share  in  the  work  of  the  State,  and  thus  she  gave 
opportunity  for  further  criticism,  until  when  1866 
dawned  she  found  herself  face  to  face  with  a  difficulty. 
Though  she  flouted  Parliament  she  could  not  do  with- 
out its  help,  and  this  year  she  must  ask  it  not  only  for 
a  dowry  for  Princess  Helena,  but  for  an  income  for 
Prince  Alfred,  who  was  coming  of  age.  So,  feeling  it 
necessary  to  do  something  popular,  she  consented  to 
appear  at  the  February  ceremony. 

It  was  a  terrible  trial  to  her;  she  had  lived  in  seclu- 
sion so  long  that  she  did  not  know  how  to  bring  herself 
to  face  a  multitude,  and  as  she  was  doing  it  for  her 
own  ends  and  not  from  a  sense  of  duty  or  a  love  for 
her  people,  she  did  it  grudgingly,  determined  that  if 
the  public  wanted  to  see  her  they  should  see  her  not 


SUBJECTS  IN  REVOLT  91 

as  the  royal  head  of  the  State,  but  as  one  who  sorrowed 
unceasingly. 

Long  before  two,  the  hour  of  opening,  the  throne- 
room  was  filled  with  a  gorgeous  crowd.  Said  Mon- 
cure  D.  Conway,  in  his  Autobiography  :  "  I  believe 
every  gem,  necklace,  coronet,  robe  and  decoration 
belonging  to  the  nobility  was  worn  that  day;  the 
fullest  of  Court  dress,  and  the  scene  was  billowy  with 
necks  and  shoulders."  When  silver  trumpets  sounded 
and  a  cannon  thundered  the  whole  assembly  rose  as 
though  galvanized.  Then  came  an  awkward  pause, 
for  nothing  happened,  and  with  cheerful  grins  every 
one  sat  down  again. 

On  the  throne  before  that  great  company  were  spread 
the  royal  robes,  with  the  crown  near  by,  and  every  one 
wondered.  The  Queen  used  the  dress  carriage,  not 
the  state  coach,  and  had  it  drawn  up  at  the  peers' 
door,  not  at  the  royal  entrance,  and  when  she  went 
into  the  throne-room  it  was  in  dead  silence,  without 
the  usual  fanfare  of  trumpets.  Deep  reverences  were 
made,  but  murmurs  of  disappointment  accompanied 
them.  The  Queen  seated  herself  on  the  throne,  her 
daughters  drawing  the  state  robe  about  her.  To  quote 
again  from  Moncure  Conway — 

"  Save  for  some  slight  badge  and  the  Koh-i-Noor 
on  her  forehead,  she  was  still  in  sombre  raiment.  She 
was  the  only  homely  woman  in  the  House,  and  this 
was  accentuated  by  contrast  with  the  beautiful  and 
superbly  costumed  Princess  of  Wales.  Instead  of  her 
reading  the  address  to  Parliament,  it  was  read  by  the 
Chancellor.  Through  it  she  sat  as  if  carved  on  the 


92    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

throne ;  when  it  was  finished  she  rose,  bowed  slightly, 
kissed  the  Princess  of  Wales  and  disappeared  through 
the  back  door.  .  .  .  This  withdrawal  from  her  func- 
tions impressed  me  as  a  danger.  There  was  a  vigor- 
ous republican  agitation  going  on  in  England,  and  it 
was  frequently  said  that  the  practical  extinction  of  the 
Court  had  demonstrated  the  uselessness  of  the  throne. 
I  remember  being  at  a  dinner  of  the  Urban  Club,  St. 
John's  Gate,  of  which  I  was  a  member,  when  young 
Mr.  Babington,  a  kinsman  of  Lord  Macaulay,  refused 
to  rise  to  the  toast  to  the  Queen,  avowing,  when 
his  conduct  was  questioned,  his  republican  opposition 
to  monarchy.  There  was  a  noisy  discussion,  but  a 
goodly  number  defended  Babington's  right  so  to 
express  his  opinion.  It  became  plain  to  me  that 
the  Queen  was  not  popular." 

Having  once  made  a  public  progression  through  the 
streets,  her  Majesty  opened  Parliament  again  next 
year,  with  the  same  absence  of  state,  though  her  gown 
was  more  regal  in  that  it  was  trimmed  with  ermine, 
and  she  wore  a  Marie  Stuart  cap.  Laments  were 
uttered  that  her  sweet,  musical  voice  was  no  longer 
heard  in  England's  Parliament,  and  instead  of  declar- 
ing themselves  amply  satisfied,  the  papers  pleaded 
that,  having  done  so  much,  she  should  go  further  and 
take  up  other  neglected  royal  duties. 

"  Our  royal  personages,  when  they  travel  abroad, 
are  received  with  royal  honours.  It  seems  unfit  that 
there  should  be  so  little  return  as  there  has  been  in 
England  of  late  for  the  hospitalities  which  have  in  so 
many  countries  been  extended  to  our  own  princes. 


SUBJECTS  IN   REVOLT  98 

Hotels,  however  comfortable,  are  not  palaces,  and  it 
is  unseemly  that  the  entertaining  of  strangers  should 
ever  be  done  in  England  by  simply  paying  the  bill. 
In  private  life  the  thing  would  be  impossible."  So 
said  The  Queen  newspaper. 

The  trouble  hinted  at  here  had  been  gathering  force 
for  some  time,  and  arose  from  the  fact  that  Victoria 
refused  to  entertain  at  her  home  any  but  personal 
friends.  When  Prince  Humbert  of  Italy  came  to 
England  he  was  put  up  at  his  ambassador's,  was  not 
invited  to  Court,  was  shown  over  Windsor  Castle  like 
an  ordinary  visitor,  and  had  to  go  to  an  inn  there  to 
get  food.  Said  a  sneering  journalist,  "  It  is  such 
delicate  courtesies  as  these  on  the  part  of  our  Court 
that  make  the  name  of  England  so  deeply  respected 
and  beloved  throughout  the  Continent." 

The  Queen  of  Holland  came  to  England  in  Sep- 
tember 1867,  was  received  at  Woolwich  by  Customs 
House  officials,  and  on  arrival  in  London  was  driven 
to  Claridge's  Hotel,  whence  she  went  to  Hatfield 
to  become  the  guest  of  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury. 
However,  the  matter  which  had  raised  the  question  of 
England's  loss  of  dignity  in  its  treatment  of  friendly 
foreign  sovereigns  was  that  not  only  had  her  Majesty's 
Ministry  refused  to  take  any  part  in  the  Great  French 
Exhibition  in  deference  to  the  Queen's  and  Palmer- 
ston's  known  dislike  and  distrust  of  Louis  Napoleon, 
but  that  Victoria  refused  to  entertain  any  of  the  royal 
visitors  to  that  great  gathering.  The  Emperor  of 
Russia,  the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  the  Khedive  of  Egypt 
and  other  crowned  heads  were  to  be  within  a  few  hours' 


94     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

journey  of  London,  but  no  invitations  were  sent  to 
any  one  to  visit  us. 

"  We  might,  so  far  as  this  mighty  fellowship  of  the 
nations  is  concerned,  as  well  be  dead.  .  .  .  There  is 
dust  on  the  curtains  and  rust  on  the  hinges  of  the 
doors.  .  .  .  The  stupor  is  forced  upon  us.  We  are 
all  ready  to  rebel  against  the  fate  that  holds  us  down. 
And  unless  a  relaxation  of  the  bondage  is  speedily 
granted,  our  national  dissatisfaction  will  find  a  voice," 
complained  the  leader-writer  in  The  Sunday  Times, 
and  all  the  papers  voiced  the  popular  anger. 

The  Khedive  sent  a  message  that  he  would  like  to 
visit  England,  which  gave  the  Queen  a  shock  at  the 
idea  that  she  should  entertain  him,  though  both  Buck- 
ingham Palace  and  St.  James's  Palace  stood  empty 
from  one  end  of  the  year  to  the  other.  The  perplexed 
Ministers  could  only  think  of  Claridge's  Hotel ;  there 
were  remonstrances  and  questions  in  the  House,  and 
then  Lord  Dudley  "  interposed  to  protect  the  nation 
from  the  reproach  which  would  have  been  cast  upon 
it,"  by  placing  his  mansion  in  Park  Lane  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  Viceroy,  and  the  Cabinet  were  only  too 
glad  to  accept  his  offer. 

The  Sultan  openly  waited  an  invitation  from  the 
English  Court,  and  no  one  knew  what  to  do.  No  one 
really  wanted  him,  for  it  was  the  time  of  the  Cretan 
rebellion,  which  was  being  put  down  with  the  usual 
Turkish  barbarities.  However,  the  Ministers  thought 
it  a  matter  of  diplomacy  to  let  him  come,  and  urged 
upon  Victoria  that  it  was  extremely  necessary  that 
she  should  extend  and  confirm  her  influence  in  the 


SUBJECTS  IN   REVOLT  95 

East,  the  cleverest  argument  that  they  could  have 
used. 

So  she  relented  and  allowed  the  Sultan,  whom 
Gladstone  later  called  the  greatest  murderer  in 
Europe,  to  be  received  at  Buckingham  Palace,  she 
herself  remaining  at  Windsor.  Her  friendly  instincts 
were  satisfied  by  inviting  the  Khedive  to  dine  and 
sleep  at  Windsor  one  night,  by  inviting  the  Sultan  to 
lunch  one  day,  and  holding  a  grand  review  of  battle- 
ships in  the  latter's  honour.  It  had  been  suggested 
that  Abdul  Aziz  should  be  decorated  with  the  Order 
of  India,  but  the  proud  monarch  scorned  anything  less 
than  the  Garter,  and  he  was  invested  with  it  during  the 
review.  It  was  a  stormy  day,  the  ships  at  Spithead 
pitching  bows  under  when  at  anchor.  On  the  yacht 
Osborne  the  Sultan  steamed  for  two  miles  between 
battleships — three  lines  of  vessels  on  either  side  of 
him — and  at  the  end  he  joined  the  Queen  on  the 
Victoria  and  Albert.  There  the  ceremony  took  place, 
being  done  "  in  grand  style  by  the  Queen  herself,"  on 
the  quarter  deck,  in  the  midst  of  a  howling  storm  and 
the  roaring  of  cannon.  As  it  was  also  done  in  a  hurry- 
there  was  no  ribbon  ready,  so  Victoria  took  the  Prince 
of  Hesse's  ribbon,  intending  it  should  be  changed  for 
a  new  one  afterwards,  but  the  Sultan  refused  to  give 
it  up,  saying  he  would  only  wear  the  actual  ribbon 
given  him  by  the  Queen. 

The  people  of  England,  in  their  delight  at  feel- 
ing themselves  once  more  in  touch  with  the  great 
world  of  Europe,  went  wild  over  the  Sultan,  the  last 
monarch  on  the  continent  to  deserve  their  ebullience ; 


96    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

yet  he  went  away  dissatisfied  with  the  attention  shown 
him. 

In  May  1867,  the  Queen  went  in  semi-state  to  lay 
the  foundation-stone  of  the  Albert  Hall,  a  wooden 
building  equal  in  size  to  the  intended  hall  having 
been  put  up  and  roofed  in  canvas.  The  velvet  and 
gold  canopy  and  throne  which  should  have  been  used 
at  the  1862  exhibition  were  transferred  there,  and 
Victoria,  in  deepest  mourning,  widow's  bonnet  and 
crepe  mantle,  occupied  its  gorgeousness,  her  mind  in 
tune  with  her  clothing.  But  she  was  not  always  so 
sad,  and  we  read  of  her  three  months  later  starting 
for  Balmoral,  wearing  a  bonnet  of  so  frivolous  a 
material  as  tulle,  and  looking  in  good  spirits  and 
excellent  health. 

When  she  could  get  away  from  the  centre  of  affairs 
and  dispense  with  state  without  qualms  of  conscience 
she  was  happy ;  but  when  she  returned  to  England  "  all 
her  depression  was  renewed."  Theodore  Martin  had 
been  living  at  Osborne  all  that  summer,  engaged  on 
the  Life  of  the  Prince,  and  to  him  Victoria  wrote  of 
Scotland — 

"  Beloved  country !  The  Queen's  whole  heart 
yearns  to  it  more  and  more,  and  it  will  be  a  sad 
day  when  she  leaves  it  again."  After  her  return,  in 
another  letter  to  him,  she  spoke  of  Windsor  as  the 
"  gloomiest,  saddest  of  places,"  the  change  to  a  cathe- 
dral church  with  its  bells  and  clergy,  to  a  garrison 
town  and  a  Court  she  described  as  "  dreadful " ; 
saying  that  she  missed  "the  atmosphere  of  loving 
affection  and  the  hearty  attachment  of  the  people." 


SUBJECTS  IN  REVOLT  97 

The  very  sentinel  under  her  window  she  thought  an 
annoyance.1 

From  which  series  of  complaints  it  is  easy  to  see 
that  neither  Windsor  nor  its  people  was  at  fault,  but 
the  Queen's  most  unfortunate  state  of  mind.  Clinging 
firmly  to  royalty,  she  yet  despised  all  its  ways,  and 
punished  her  innocent  subjects  by  lauding  the  simple, 
homely  life  of  a  country  lady  which  she  loved,  as 
though  they  were  the  cause  of  her  having  occasionally 
to  take  her  real  position  as  a  queen.  She  was  quite 
an  old  woman  before  her  mind  grew  healthier  and  she 
began  to  realize  the  real  character  of  her  English  sub- 
jects, before  she  began  to  lose  the  blighting  Germanic 
impressions  about  them  almost  indelibly  pressed  upon 
her  by  Prince  Albert.  That  the  English  people  re- 
sented her  poor  opinion  and  avoidance  of  them  was 
only  to  be  expected,  but  Victoria  regarded  their  resent- 
ment as  only  a  new  proof  of  their  unworthiness  and 
inferiority  to  her  Scotch  peasants. 

During  the  next  few  dark  years  English  newspapers 
recurred  constantly  to  the  popular  desire  for  the 
Queen's  favour,  for  her  presence,  for  her  recognition 
of  the  people's  loyalty ;  some,  more  impatient,  openly 
declared  that  the  country  had  no  use  for  such  a  queen, 
that  it  was  wrong  to  spend  so  much  money  for  nothing. 
"  Which  is  it  to  be  ?  "  was  the  question  under  a  double 
cartoon ;  one  side  showing  Victoria  on  her  throne  in  the 
midst  of  animated  people,  some  at  work  and  others  at 
play,  and  on  the  opposite  page  was  the  throne  covered 
solely  with  state  robes,  and  people  vainly  seeking  work, 

1   Victoria  as  I  Knew  Her.     By  Sir  Theodore  Martin. 

H 


98     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

or  in  a  state  of  exhaustion.  All  this  has  been  ignored 
by  the  mass  of  courtly  biographers  who  have  written 
"  lives "  of  Victoria,  who  sing  a  prolonged  song  of 
praise,  and  pretend  that  the  nation  honoured  her  long 
seclusion  as  a  beautiful  ideal  of  devotion.  But  the 
truth  is  to  be  found  in  the  daily  papers  of  the  period, 
and  in  the  speeches  both  of  members  of  Parliament 
and  of  leaders  of  revolution. 

Official  attempts  were  made  in  July  1867  to  explain 
her  Majesty's  continued  absence  from  all  public  fes- 
tivities on  the  score  of  health,  saying  that  agitation, 
over-worry  or  much  talking  in  the  evening  would  be 
followed  by  restless  nights  and  distressing  sick  head- 
aches :  "  It  is  right  to  be  known  that  her  Majesty,  with 
the  greatest  desire  to  fulfil  all  those  duties  which  apper- 
tain to  her  dignity  or  her  hospitality,  is  occasionally 
prevented  from  performing  them  by  bodily  suffering 
of  a  character  most  difficult  to  be  borne."  A  sentence 
which,  from  its  style,  was  obviously  written  by  Victoria 
herself. 

This  did  not  do  much  good,  probably  because  the 
notice  protested  too  much,  for  no  one  believed  that 
Victoria  was  anxious  to  fulfil  the  duties  in  question. 
But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  she  did  suffer  as  de- 
scribed through  nervousness,  produced,  not  by  over- 
excitement  in  itself,  but  by  the  constant  seclusion  which 
gave  rise  to  a  feeling  of  excitement  when,  on  rare 
occasions,  she  did  surround  herself  with  people. 

She  had  in  March  of  this  year  spent  two  days  at 
Buckingham  Palace,  on  one  of  which  she  had  driven 
round  Trafalgar  Square  to  see  the  new  lions,  and  had 


SUBJECTS  IN  REVOLT  99 

held  a  Court  in  the  afternoon;  on  the  second  she  had 
gone  to  the  studios  of  Henry  Weekes  and  Patrick 
M'Dowell  to  see  the  groups  being  executed  for  the 
Albert  Memorial.  At  the  end  of  the  month  she  was 
in  London  again  for  twenty-four  hours,  and  held  the 
first  drawing-room  of  her  widowhood.  .  .  .  Thus  she 
had  at  least  made  an  attempt  to  meet  the  wishes  of  her 
subjects.  In  the  following  year  she  held  another 
drawing-room,  this  time  of  a  more  dignified  character, 
as  the  invitations  were  for  Buckingham  Palace  and  not 
for  St.  James's.  Of  this  function  it  was  told  that  her 
Majesty's  sense  of  decorum  was  shocked  by  the  dress 
of  one  lady,  and  that  she  instructed  her  chamberlain 
to  inform  that  guest  that  she  was  not  to  appear  again 
at  the  palace  in  so  low  a  dress.  In  July,  too,  she 
invited  six  hundred  guests  to  a  breakfast  in  the  garden 
of  Buckingham  Palace,  at  which  she  was  said  to  look 
remarkably  well  and  to  enjoy  the  party. 

There  was  a  curious  controversy,  born  of  lack  of 
usage,  as  to  what  garments  were  suitable  for  a  break- 
fast held  at  4.30  p.m. — we  now  call  them  tea-parties — 
and  it  ended  in  a  command  for  morning  trousers  and 
evening  coats,  perhaps  an  attempt  to  accentuate  the 
hour  as  between  morning  and  night.  One  facetious 
writer  declared  that  the  Lord  Chancellor  had  been 
reduced  to  studying  Enquire  Within  upon  Everything 
for  guidance. 

In  spite  of  these  rare  appearances,  so  gladly  acknow- 
ledged by  the  Press,  Victoria  had  no  intention  of 
making  a  habit  of  hospitality,  and  discontent  was  by 
no  means  stamped  out;  her  injudicious  favouritism  of 


100     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

a  Scotch  servant  also  gave  it  new  life,  while  altering 
its  character  in  a  disagreeable  way. 

John  Brown  was  the  son  of  a  humble  farmer  at 
Craithie,  was  gaunt  in  appearance,  rough  in  manner, 
and  spoke  broad  Doric.  He  had  been  gillie,  or  out- 
door boy,  to  Prince  Albert  at  Balmoral  in  1849,  and 
was  taken  on  as  permanent  servant  three  years  later. 
After  her  widowhood  Victoria  gave  up  riding  for  a 
time,  and  then,  to  relieve  monotony,  used  a  pony, 
John  Brown  being  appointed  to  walk  at  its  head. 
From  that  time  he  was  her  Majesty's  shadow;  maybe 
because,  in  her  entourage  trained  to  meek  obedience 
and  quiet  subservience,  this  uncouth  and  assertive 
Scotchman  provided  a  certain  piquancy  to  her  dulness. 
She  went  nowhere  without  him,  he  stood  behind  her 
chair  at  table,  drove  on  the  box  of  her  carriage,  went 
abroad  with  her,  and  was  by  her  side  on  every  journey, 
short  or  long.  He  became  a  power  in  the  palace,  and 
was  a  far  more  important  person  than  Sir  John  Cowell, 
the  Master  of  the  Household. 

In  1866  the  Queen  gave  John  Brown  the  title  of 
Esquire,  and  Punch  at  once  did  his  new  position 
honour  by  including  his  name  in  an  especial  Court 
Circular — 

"  Balmoral.  Tuesday.  Mr.  John  Brown  walked  on 
the  Slopes.  He  frequently  partook  of  a  haggis.  In 
the  evening  Mr.  John  Brown  was  pleased  to  listen  to 
the  bagpipes.  Mr.  John  Brown  retired  early." 

In  the  previous  year  when  Victoria  wrote  to  her 
daughter  Alice  that  she  should  bring  Brown  with  her 
on  her  visit  to  Germany,  Alice  replied,  "  How  it  will 


SUBJECTS  IN  REVOLT  101 

amuse  and  please  me  to  show  the  excellent  Scotchman 
our  home.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  hear  of  such  devotion 
and  attention  to  you  as  Brown's  is,  and  indeed  you  are 
so  kind  to  him,  that  his  whole  happiness  must  consist 
in  serving  so  good  a  mistress." 

Living  at  such  a  distance,  Princess  Alice  could  afford 
to  write  in  this  way;  but  had  she  lived  under  the 
Scotchman's  shadow,  as  some  of  her  sisters  and 
brothers  did,  she  might  have  been  less  cordial.  John 
Brown  was  a  republican  in  manners,  uttering  his 
opinions  loudly  before  all,  his  royal  mistress  included, 
and  in  him  she  did  not  resent  this.  His  advice  was 
asked  on  all  questions,  whether  family,  private  or 
public,  and  many  a  strong  word  has  been  smothered 
in  a  royal  throat  in  exasperation  thereat.  As  time  went 
on  Brown  became  more  and  more  necessary  to  the 
Queen,  and  more  and  more  overbearing  to  those  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact.  But  his  mistress  showered 
favours  on  him  and  delighted  to  do  him  honour. 
Among  one  of  his  privileges  was  the  sole  right  of 
fishing  in  the  Dee,  at  a  spot  close  to  the  Castle  of 
Balmoral. 

One  morning  when  he  was  busy  with  the  salmon,  a 
servant  went  to  him,  saying — 

"  Mr.  Brown,  her  Majesty  wishes  you  to  go  to  her." 

''Weel,  just  tell  her  Majesty  that  A  canna  come; 
Ah'm  juist  hooking  a  feesh." 

A  little  later  the  servant  went  again;  the  Queen 
wanted  to  see  him  at  once. 

''Weel,  ye  must  tell  her  Majesty  that  A've  juist 
hooked  the  saumun,  and  A  canna  come  the  noo." 


102     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

When  Adelaide  was  queen  she  kept  a  little  frigate 
on  Virginia  Water  for  family  use,  and  Victoria  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  replacing  it  with  something  more 
useful  and  up  to  date.  She,  of  course,  consulted 
Brown,  who  asked  her  what  was  the  good  of  fooling 
away  so  much  money.  Later  her  Majesty,  still  playing 
with  the  idea,  suggested  a  steam  launch,  but  her 
servant  snubbed  her  with  the  same  retort.  At  last, 
through  some  influence,  the  Admiralty  provided  a 
barge,  at  the  public  cost  of  £700,  which  gave  Victoria 
a  double  pleasure.  John  Brown,  however,  still 
scowled,  until  told  that  the  Admiralty  had  paid  for 
it,  whereupon  he  graciously  ejaculated — 

"  Weel,  if  they  like  to  fule  awa'  their  money,  o' 
course  they  can." 

It  is  said  that  the  barge  was  never  used  by  the  Prince 
and  Princess  of  Wales,  as  they  would  have  had  to 
ask  permission  of  the  Queen,  which  would  have  been 
tantamount  to  asking  it  of  John  Brown. 

Another  perfectly  authentic  story,  told  by  several 
people  and  among  them  by  Neele,  the  superintendent 
of  the  Queen's  train,  who  was  on  the  platform  at 
the  time,  is  dated  1878.  The  Queen  received  a 
telegram  on  her  way  north,  before  reaching  Perth, 
where  breakfast  was  arranged  for  her  in  the  usual 
waiting-room.  From  this  telegram  she  learned  that 
Princess  Helena's  week-old  son  was  dead.  As  soon 
as  the  train  drew  up  on  the  Perth  platform,  Brown 
swung  himself  off,  and  approaching  the  crowd  of  mag- 
nates who  were  waiting  to  receive  her  Majesty,  cried 
in  loud  Doric — 


SUBJECTS  IN  REVOLT  103 

"  No  cheering  !  no  cheering  !  Christian's  babby's 
dead  !  " 

Brown  is  also  credited  with  telling  the  Queen  on 
more  than  one  occasion  that  she  did  not  know  her  own 
mind  for  two  minutes  together,  a  freedom  which  would 
have  been  allowed  to  no  one  else  on  earth. 

By  1867  John  Brown's  name  was  in  every  mouth,  and 
such  stories  as  the  above  were  titbits  of  gossip,  eagerly 
repeated.  It  was  all  so  contrary  to  the  Englishman's 
conception  of  his  Queen,  proud  to  a  fault,  coldly 
indifferent,  punctilious  in  ceremony,  that  it  gradually 
rose  to  a  sensation,  and  the  worser  sort  did  not  scruple 
to  utter  coarse  jokes.  This  was  commented  upon  by 
The  Sunday  Times,  a  paper  at  that  period  most  annoy- 
ing to  high  persons  for  its  outspokenness.  Noting 
the  general  discontent  with  royalty,  in  a  leader  it 
continued — 

"  This  discontent  is  already  making  itself  known  by 
methods  which  we  both  disapprove  and  deplore.  We 
have  but  little  patience  with  sinister  mendacity  and 
still  less  with  disgusting  scandal.  But  the  mendacity 
is  not  without  meaning — the  scandal  is  not  without 
significance.  Almost  every  kind  of  unpleasant  rumour 
is  in  circulation.  Nobody  believes  the  rumours,  which 
yet  find  a  ready  currency.  The  explanation  of  this 
state  of  affairs  is  too  easy  to  find.  Unpleasant  lies 
are  invented  and  repeated  and  handed  from  mouth  to 
mouth,  because  there  is  a  strong  inducement  of  dissatis- 
faction which  is  too  earnest  for  silence  and  yet  too 
timid  for  utterance.  We  abhor  the  trick,  we  deprecate 
and  denounce  it." 


104     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

A  weekly  illustrated  paper,  named  The  Tomahawk, 
published  a  cartoon  that  August,  entitled,  '  The 
Mystery  of  the  Season,"  showing  John  Brown  in 
Highland  clothes,  pipe  in  hand,  leaning  on  the  side 
of  the  throne  chair,  gazing  down  upon  it  thoughtfully, 
while  the  British  lion  stares  up  at  him,  waiting,  like 
an  expectant  dog,  for  his  word. 

Of  Brown  at  this  period  the  Queen  herself  wrote  : 
"  His  attention,  care  and  faithfulness  cannot  be  ex- 
ceeded; and  the  state  of  my  health,  which  of  late 
years  has  been  sorely  tried  and  weakened,  renders  such 
qualifications  most  valuable,  and  indeed  most  needful, 
in  a  constant  attendant  upon  all  occasions.  He  has 
most  deservedly  been  promoted  to  be  an  upper  servant, 
and  my  permanent  personal  attendant.  He  has  all  the 
independence  and  elevated  feelings  peculiar  to  the 
Highland  race,  and  is  singularly  straightforward, 
simple-minded, kind-hearted  and  disinterested;  always 
ready  to  oblige;  and  of  a  discretion  rarely  to  be  met 
with." 

The  only  pity  was  that  the  Queen  was  herself  so 
indiscreet  in  allowing  a  mere  serving-man,  or  indeed 
any  one,  such  liberty  of  speech  as  that  claimed  by  John 
Brown — a  liberty  far  exceeding  that  which  she  allowed 
to  her  own  children;  her  indiscretion  was  also  shown 
in  making  her  favouritism  so  publicly  known  among 
her  English  subjects,  who  felt  that  the  superiority  of 
the  Highland  character  was  too  much  insisted  upon. 

From  this  time  John  Brown's  name  constantly  ap- 
peared in  print  in  a  way  flattering  neither  to  him  nor 
to  her  Majesty,  for  his  influence  increased  as  the  years 


SUBJECTS  IN  REVOLT  105 

passed.  He  was  known  as  one  who  was  feared,  not 
liked  by  his  equals ;  one  who  could  not  be  opposed  with 
impunity,  who  was  strongly  disliked  by  the  Queen's 
children — the  Princess  Royal  being  the  only  one  who 
dared  to  say  openly  to  her  mother  what  she  thought 
about  him  and  his  position — who  knew  many  secrets, 
and  who  was  charged  occasionally  by  the  Queen  with 
delicate  and  secret  missions. 

In  June  1870  The  Tomahawk  published  another  car- 
toon of  him,  called  "  The  Vacant  Chair,"  showing  John 
Brown  about  to  seat  himself  upon  the  Prince  Consort's 
empty  throne.  Before  July  had  elapsed  the  paper  had 
ceased  to  exist,  and  Matt  Morgan,  its  editor,  had  re- 
ceived a  large  bribe  to  exercise  his  talents  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic. 

That  the  Queen's  family  and  relatives  occasionally 
joined  in  the  remonstrance  offered  her  concerning  her 
avoidance  of  her  subjects  is  shown  by  the  last  words 
uttered  about  her  by  King  Leopold — 

"  Pauvre  Victoria  !  ne  la  tormentez." 


CHAPTER   VIII 

TWO    PRIME    MINISTERS 

"  You  forget,  my  dearest  love,  that  I  am  the  Sovereign,  and 
that  business  can  stop  and  wait  for  nothing.  Parliament  is 
sitting,  and  something  occurs  almost  every  day  for  which  I  may 
be  required,  and  it  is  quite  impossible  for  me  to  be  absent  from 
London,  therefore  two  or  three  days  is  already  a  long  time  to  be 
absent." — Queen  Victoria's  Letter  to  Prince  Albert.  1840. 

"  We  know  we  say  how  very  good  our  Queen  is, 

And  what  a  manager  and  what  a  mother  ! 
But  though  all  this  so  very  plainly  seen  is, 

We  cannot  quite  our  discontentment  smother. 
Her  virtues  we  admire,  but  what  we  mean  is, 

Of  two  moves  she  should  choose  the  one  or  t'other; 
The  one  is — coming  out  amongst  the  nation, 
The  other — going  in  for  abdication." 

Contemporary  verse.      1868. 

OF  the  men  who  held  the  exalted  post  of  Prime 
Minister  during  the  last  forty  years  of  Queen  Victoria's 
reign,  the  two  most  notable  were  Gladstone  and 
Disraeli.  They  were  in  almost  every  way  in  extreme 
opposition  to  each  other,  and  they  had  a  profound 
dislike  for  each  other.  Gladstone's  dislike  was  down- 
right and  caustic,  and  Disraeli's  sarcastic  and  suave. 
Gladstone  had  intellectual  depth,  Disraeli  was  super- 
ficial and  brilliant;  the  one  was  devoted  to  ruling  an 
improved  England,  the  other  to  wielding  Imperial 
power;  the  first  found  his  greatest  pleasure  in  living 
with  the  old  Greek  writers,  notably  Homer,  the  other 

106 


TWO  PRIME  MINISTERS  107 

in  writing  graceful  and  satirical  novels.  Their  points 
of  agreement  belonged  purely  to  their  external  life. 
They  were  both  faithful  lovers  and  both  won  the 
adoration  of  their  wives.  Mrs.  Gladstone,  once  known 
as  "the  beautiful  Catherine  Glynn,"  was  in  her  age 
once  heard  at  a  royal  concert  discoursing  upon  her 
married  happiness,  and  concluded  with  the  remark, 
"  But  perhaps,  my  dear,  you  don't  know  what  it  is  to 
have  an  affectionate  husband  !  "  She  also  once  spoke 
of  her  husband  as  "surrounded  with  a  halo  of 
humility."  But  a  beautiful  story  is  that  of  a  clergy- 
man calling  to  see  Gladstone,  and  being  entertained 
by  Mrs.  Gladstone  until  her  husband,  who  was  writing 
upstairs,  was  disengaged.  The  visitor  lamented  the 
terrible  state  of  affairs  in  Ireland,  but  added  con- 
solingly— 

"  There  is  One  above  who  will  set  all  right." 
"Oh  yes,"  said  Mrs.  Gladstone;  "he'll  be  down 
directly !  " 

Disraeli  married  Mrs.  Wyndham  Lewis,  who  was 
the  widow  of  a  friend,  and  fifteen  years  older  than 
himself.  He  would  tell  her  in  joke  that  he  had 
married  her  for  money,  but  she  would  only  smile 
and  say,  "  But  if  you  had  to  do  it  again  you  would  do 
it  for  love  " ;  to  which  he  would  agree.  She  called 
him,  as  many  other  people  did,  "  Dizzy,"  and  he  spoke 
of  her  as  Mary  Anne.  It  was  a  case  in  which  the 
quality  of  protectiveness  was  exercised  by  the  wife, 
for  Mrs.  Disraeli  stood  ever  between  her  husband  and 
trouble,  and  counted  herself  as  nothing.  She  was 
once  driving  to  the  House  with  him,  when  her  hand 


108    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

got  crushed  in  the  carriage  door,  but  she  bore  the 
pain  silently,  smilingly,  for  fear  knowledge  of  the 
accident  should  distract  his  mind  from  the  important 
speech  he  was  about  to  make.  She  was  more  dis- 
criminating than  Mrs.  Gladstone,  perhaps  because 
she  had  a  strong  sense  of  humour,  and  she  once  said 
to  a  friend,  "  Dizzy  has  the  most  wonderful  moral 
courage  in  the  world,  but  no  physical  courage.  When 
he  has  a  shower-bath,  I  always  have  to  pull  the 
string." 

Certainly  in  their  home  lives  both  the  Gladstones 
and  the  Disraelis  came  well  up  to  the  Queen's  ideal 
of  perfection.  Gladstone  once,  staying  at  Windsor, 
was  talking  to  a  colleague  on  serious  political  ques- 
tions, when  a  slight  noise  was  heard  through  an  open 
door,  much  to  the  horror  of  the  colleague. 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Gladstone ;  "  it  is  only  my  wife. 
For  forty  years  she  has  heard  me  discuss  matters 
of  State,  but  never  once  has  anything  come  back  to 
me." 

Gladstone  had  come  naturally  to  a  parliamentary 
life,  but  Disraeli,  hampered  by  his  race  and  compara- 
tive poverty,  had  had  to  fight  for  it  from  the  beginning. 
It  is  said  that  when  he  saw  the  first  caricature  of  him- 
self he  jumped  for  joy,  declaring  that  now  his  career 
was  made.  As  a  boy  of  fourteen  he  had  been  chris- 
tianized, but  he  never  really  changed  his  religious 
beliefs,  and  for  that  reason  could  fight  equally  well 
on  any  side  of  Christian  dispute.  Yet  he  had  once 
said,  "  You  will  see  many  things,  but  there  are  two 
which  you  will  never  not  see  me — a  Jew  and  a  Radical." 


W.   E.  GLADSTONE 


TWO  PRIME  MINISTERS  109 

When   Darwinism  was  first  discussed   he  thought  it 
politic  to  condemn  it  in  a  speech  at  Oxford. 

:'What  is  the  question?"  he  asked.  "It  is  now 
placed  before  society  with,  I  might  say,  a  glib  assur- 
ance which  to  me  is  astonishing — the  question  is,  is 
man  an  ape  or  an  angel  ?  (A  laugh.)  Now,  I  am  on 
the  side  of  the  angels.  (Cheers.)"  This  saying  has 
become  a  "  familiar  quotation  " ;  Punch  fastened  on  it 
thus — 

"On  the  side  of  the  angels,  my  Dizzy?  ah,  then, 

How  happy  the  angels  should  be  ! 

The  ally  whom  they  least  could  have  looked  for  of  men, 
In  their  army  enlisted  to  see  !  " 

Of  the  two  men  politically  no  one  can  doubt  which 
Victoria  preferred.  The  Prince  Consort  had  once  said 
of  the  Liberal,  "  Mr.  Gladstone  is  a  very  clever  man, 
and  as  he  was  educated  at  Oxford,  he  is  able  to  believe 
anything  he  chooses." l  And,  with  her  subservient 
regard  for  the  lightest  word  of  the  Prince,  the  Queen 
accepted  this  libel  upon  an  honest  statesman.  Glad- 
stone was  also  too  subtle  and  intellectual  for  her,  she 
could  not  understand  him,  always  feeling  irritated  at 
the  end  of  an  interview,  probably  for  the  same  reason 
that  a  Liberal  once  gave  for  his  dislike  of  the  Minister, 
"  Oh,  he  is  always  so  damnably  right." 

Gladstone  regarded  Victoria  with  the  deepest 
loyalty  and  respect,  both  personally  and  because  he 
felt  the  Crown  to  be  sacred;  he  accepted  to  their 
fulness  the  assertions  that  she  studied  every  question 

1  Notes  from  a  Diary.     By  the  Right  Hon.  Sir  Mountstuart 
Grant  Duff. 


110    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

put  before  the  country,  and  would  go  into  details 
in  explanation  of  his  views,  which  she  could  not 
follow;  and  once  she  said  petulantly  after  he  was 
gone,  "  He  talks  to  me  as  though  I  were  a  public 
meeting." 

Disraeli,  on  the  contrary,  spoke  a  little  on  politics, 
told  her  some  amusing  stories,  discussed  intricate 
German  relationships  and  German  art,  found  occasion 
to  make  her  laugh  and  to  impress  her  with  her  high 
importance.  He  had  no  scruples  either  about  the  use 
of  flattery.  "  First  of  all  remember,"  he  said  to  a 
colleague  who  was  going  out  to  Baden  with  the  Queen, 
"  that  she  is  a  woman ! "  This  and  his  charming 
manner  give  the  secret  of  his  ascendancy  over  Victoria; 
she  was  what  we  now  call  a  mid-Victorian  woman,  and 
her  Conservative  adviser  realized  it  and  treated  her 
with  the  chivalrous  air  and  the  banalities  which  were 
then  regarded  as  the  correct  thing  for  the  "  inferior 
sex."  So  Disraeli's  gaiety  delighted  her,  his  deference 
soothed  her  wounded  self-respect,  and  his  flattery 
confirmed  her  belief  that  all  she  did  was  right.  She 
took  him  into  her  confidence  and  gave  him  a  definite 
part  in  her  life,  and  he  was  nearly  at  the  height  of 
his  ambition;  not  quite,  for  there  was  one  little  thing 
still  to  achieve. 

Gladstone's  deep  respect  and  sincere  loyalty  were 
to  her  but  the  dues  of  her  position;  that  he  did  not 
accompany  them  with  an  equally  deep  interest  in  the 
small  things  of  her  life  was  an  offence,  and  it  would 
have  utterly  surprised  him  to  know  that  she  said  of 
him  that  he  showed  "little  interest"  and  was  "very 


TWO   PRIME  MINISTERS  111 

helpless  "  in  her  personal  affairs.  She  is  not  the  only 
one  who  has  preferred  as  a  friend  one  who  could 
sympathize  with  her  own  point  of  view  rather  than 
one  who  was  absorbed  in  her  matters  of  business. 

This  power  for  sympathy  was  the  secret  of  Victoria's 
friendship  for  Dr.  Norman  Macleod.  In  her  diary, 
under  date  June  17,  1866,  when  she  was  indignant  at 
the  discontent  of  her  English  people,  she  wrote  of  the 
clergyman — 

"  He  was  so  amiable  and  full  of  sympathy ;  he  also 
suffers  much  from  constant  work  and  worry  and  must 
go  abroad  for  relaxation.  Told  him  how  much  I 
required  it  and  that  I  came  here  for  it,  and  had  had 
a  hard  fight  for  it.  He  said  he  quite  felt  this,  and 
entreated  me — '  as  you  work  for  us ' — always  to  insist 
upon  coming  here." 

There  have  been  many  theories  for  Victoria's  dislike 
of  Gladstone,  but  they  all  resolve  themselves  into 
incompatibility  of  manner  and  outlook,  and  a  dislike 
for  his  politics.  This  double  dislike  she  never  hid, 
often  giving  it  public  expression,  and  at  his  death 
many  stories  were  revived  about  actual  personal  dis- 
courtesies offered,  such  as  keeping  him  waiting  hours 
when  he  was  summoned  for  an  audience,  while  she 
went  out  for  a  drive  or  otherwise  followed  her  usual 
routine,  and  refusing  to  speak  to  him  if  she  met  him 
anywhere.  That  Gladstone  never  allowed  this  to 
influence  his  policy  angered  her  the  more,  and  he, 
speaking  in  his  age  of  their  strained  relations,  said 
that  from  his  first  entrance  to  Windsor  to  his  last 
there  had  been  occasions  when  he  had  had  to  harden 


112    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

his  heart  to  a  flint,  for  his  actions  had  always  been 
"  sole " ;  that  is  to  say,  he  had  been  working  for  a 
principle  and  had  had  to  resist  all  the  Queen's  efforts 
to  shake  him  from  it. 

She  loved  the  brave  show,  the  splendid  outside 
fabric,  the  imperialistic  ideas  which  characterized 
Disraeli,  and  had  little  appreciation  of  the  solid 
building  work  which  opposed  Gladstone  to  him.  It 
was  enough  that  the  former  wanted  to  extend  her 
empire.  Gladstone  had  no  interest  in  that;  he  had 
his  mind  upon  the  people,  and  saw  that  if  a  revolution 
was  to  be  avoided  the  ills  of  Ireland  must  be  cured, 
not  accentuated  by  suppression;  that  if  the  Queen 
was  to  be  maintained  firmly  upon  her  throne  the 
English  must  be  given  the  franchise  reform  that  they 
demanded.  Victoria,  obsessed  by  her  conviction  of 
divine  right,  could  not  see  these  things  at  all. 

So  it  was  very  much  to  her  annoyance  that  in  March 
1866,  when  Prussia  was  getting  ready  for  its  swoop 
on  Austria,  she  saw  Gladstone  bring  in  a  Reform  Bill. 
She  wanted  all  her  attention  for  continental  happen- 
ings, and  when  she  realized  that  her  ministers  intended 
to  make  this  Bill  the  great  measure  of  the  session,  and 
also  that  it  would  be  a  very  contentious  measure,  she 
declared  that  it  could  not  possibly  be  regarded  as 
of  sufficient  importance  to  be  allowed  to  upset  the 
Government.  She  plainly  told  Lord  John  Russell 
that,  whatever  happened  to  his  Franchise  Bill,  she 
would  allow  no  change  in  the  Ministry  until  the 
Austro- Prussian  war  was  settled.  In  return  her 
Cabinet  begged  her  to  stay  at  Windsor  through  May 


TWO  PRIME  MINISTERS  113 

while  the  debates  were  progressing,  that  she  might  be 
at  hand  if  a  crisis  arose. 

Her  answer  was  that  she  intended  to  go  to  Balmoral 
as  usual,  and  she  expected  the  Government  to  allow 
no  crisis  to  occur. 

So  while  the  House  was  in  the  midst  of  an  energetic 
struggle,  Victoria  left  England  to  follow  her  pleasant 
but  mild  occupations  in  the  Highlands :  driving, 
riding,  sketching,  visiting  hallowed  spots,  and  hearing 
sympathetic  words  from  Dr.  Macleod.  But  her  com- 
mand could  not  control  the  conflict  of  six  hundred 
men,  and  in  the  middle  of  June  the  Government  was 
defeated  by  eleven  votes,  causing  a  tremendous  scene 
of  ebullient  joy  among  the  Tories. 

Victoria  was  extremely  "provoked,"  and  said  she 
was  taken  entirely  by  surprise.  Had  she  been — what 
it  is  so  often  claimed  that  she  was — a  truly  constitu- 
tional sovereign,  no  surprise  could  have  fallen  upon 
her;  it  was  her  unconscious  tendency  to  absolute 
monarchy  which  had  made  her  believe  that  it  was  only 
necessary  for  her  to  speak  to  be  obeyed.  Lord  John 
Russell  was  then  very  old,  and  felt  that  he  had  done 
his  last  public  work;  the  journey  to  Balmoral  was  too 
much  for  him  to  contemplate,  so  he  sent  his  resigna- 
tion by  messenger,  which  also  displeased  the  Queen. 

While  she  was  in  Scotland  monster  Reform  meet- 
ings were  held  in  all  large  towns,  and  yet  she  wrote 
back  to  Russell  that  the  state  of  Europe  was  danger- 
ous, the  country  was  apathetic  about  reform,  and  it 
was  inconsistent  with  the  duty  that  ministers  owed 
herself  and  the  country  to  abandon  their  posts  on  what 


114    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

was,  after  all,  only  a  matter  of  detail.  She  desired 
them  to  reconsider  their  decision.  The  Cabinet  met 
to  do  as  she  wished,  but  found  that  the  only  plan  was 
resignation.  Victoria  returned  to  Windsor  nine  days 
after  the  ministerial  defeat,  and  it  was  another  nine 
days  before  Lord  Derby  was  sent  for  and  accepted 
office,  with  Disraeli  as  his  foremost  man.  The  people 
of  London  rose  in  turbulence  at  the  death  of  Reform, 
and  a  great  crowd  surrounded  Gladstone's  house  one 
day  when  he  was  not  there.  Fearing  a  riot,  the  police 
begged  Mrs.  Gladstone  to  appear  for  one  minute  on 
the  balcony  to  satisfy  them,  and  then  the  people 
dispersed. 

It  is  curious  in  this  struggle  between  Queen  and 
Parliament,  and  in  later  ones,  to  contrast  Victoria's 
action  in  leaving  the  country  without  a  Government 
for  eighteen  days,  and  going  to  Balmoral  for  a  month 
when  a  great  crisis  was  expected,  with  her  youthful 
sentiments  which  head  this  chapter. 

It  was  in  July  this  year  that  a  five  days'  battle  took 
place  in  Hyde  Park  between  the  police  and  an  army 
of  roughs,  who  took  advantage  of  the  Reform  agita- 
tion to  do  as  they  pleased;  and  then  were  broken 
down  those  Hyde  Park  railings  about  which  so  much 
has  been  heard  of  late  years. 

The  whole  world  seemed  awry,  for  in  addition  to 
wars  abroad  and  rows  at  home  Ireland  was  being 
filled  with  money,  pikeheads  and  Irish-Americans  to 
fight  England,  and  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  had  to 
be  suspended.  It  was  done  in  somewhat  peculiar 
circumstances,  there  being  great  anxiety  to  conclude 


TWO   PRIME  MINISTERS  115 

the  matter  before  the  end  of  the  week.  The  Queen 
was  at  Osborne,  and  to  her  on  the  Saturday  a  telegram 
was  sent  for  her  assent.  The  members  remained  in 
the  House  until  midnight,  and  then,  as  the  answer 
had  not  arrived,  dispersed.  At  12.30 — that  is,  on 
Sunday  morning — a  messenger  came  with  the  assent, 
and  the  House  was  convoked,  and  though  not  fifty 
men  were  present  the  new  law  was  promulgated,  in 
spite  of  the  law  against  Sunday  legislation. 

Disraeli  had  done  his  utmost  to  turn  Russell's 
Government  out  on  Reform,  and  had  succeeded;  he 
himself,  finding  the  "  apathetic  "  public  too  eager  and 
vociferous  to  let  him  drop  that  measure,  determined 
to  "  dish  the  Whigs  "  and  bring  in  a  Reform  Bill  of 
his  own.  He  was  afraid,  though,  that  the  Opposition 
would  retaliate  in  kind,  so,  with  the  Queen's  consent, 
tried  to  arrange  that  the  fate  of  his  Government  should 
not  be  allowed  to  depend  on  his  bill.  It  was  a  cry 
of  "  Heads  I  win,  tails  you  lose !  "  which  did  not 
please  the  Liberals.  He  had  once  said  of  Peel  that 
he  had  found  the  Whigs  bathing  and  had  walked  away 
with  their  clothes;  in  this  case  Disraeli  had  helped 
the  Liberals  to  undress  for  the  plunge  and  had  then 
walked  off  with  their  garments. 

He  relied  upon  the"  Adullamites,"  so  called  because 
they  were  Liberals  who  dissented  from  Gladstone's 
bill,  and  whom  Bright  likened  to  the  enemies  of  Saul 
who  hid  with  David  in  the  Cave  of  Adullam.  These, 
however,  instead  of  joining  Disraeli,  ran  away  shiver- 
ing when  he  said  "  Reform,"  upon  which  Gladstone 
uttered  an  eleventh  commandment :  "  Thou  shalt  not 


116    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

commit  Adullamy."  When  the  new  bill,  torn  to  pieces, 
reversed,  its  black  made  white  and  its  white  black, 
was  at  last  passed,  Lowe,  the  chief  of  the  Adullamites, 
piously  made  the  best  of  events  by  saying  of  the  new 
voters,  "  We  must  now  educate  our  masters." 

As  to  Fenianism,  it  is  too  long  a  tale.  The  Fenians 
thought  to  capture  Chester  Castle,  they  rescued 
prisoners  in  Manchester,  and  unintentionally  killed 
a  policeman,  which  led  to  the  hanging  of  three  men 
who  were  by  no  means  proved  to  have  been  the 
assassins;  in  dastard  callousness  they  blew  up  a  part 
of  Clerkenwell  Prison,  killing  many  innocent  people; 
and  they  threatened  to  kidnap  the  Queen,  an  idea 
which  tickled  her  Majesty  wonderfully,  who  declared, 
laughing,  that  they  would  find  her  a  very  troublesome 
prisoner.  But  every  one  felt  that  she  was  in  real 
danger,  and  on  her  return  from  Balmoral  that  autumn 
her  advisers  ordered  a  Scotch  regiment  to  accompany, 
under  arms,  the  royal  train  from  Ballater  to  Carlisle, 
a  regiment  of  footguards  being  sent  to  the  latter  place 
to  go  with  the  train  to  Windsor.  However,  the  Queen 
would  have  none  of  it;  she  saw  wisely  that  such  a 
course  would  mean  visible  public  division  between 
herself  and  her  people,  so  she  resolutely  refused  to 
sanction  the  arrangement,  saying  that  she  felt  the 
fullest  confidence  in  her  people. 

It  had  often  been  urged  that  the  Queen  or  the 
Prince  of  Wales  should  have  a  house  in  Ireland,  but 
unfortunately  this  was  never  brought  about,  though  at 
this  time  a  report  spread  through  the  sister  isle  that 
the  Prince  and  Princess  intended  to  spend  a  portion 


TWO  PRIME  MINISTERS  117 

of  each  year  there,  and  that  her  Majesty  would  go 
to  Killarney  in  1867.  It  was  not,  however,  till  April 
1868  that  Albert  Edward  and  Alexandra  paid  the 
promised  visit,  and  then  the  Irish  people,  jealous, 
passionate  and  generous,  met  them  with  cheers,  pre- 
sented the  Princess  with  two  white  doves — which  later 
found  a  home  at  Sandringham — and  themselves  kept 
the  streets  of  Dublin  free  from  confusion,  no  troops 
appearing  at  all ;  which  is  a  tribute,  not  only  to  the 
Irish,  but  to  the  courage  of  the  royalties. 

Prince  Arthur,  who  went  there  a  year  later,  did  not 
fare  quite  so  well.  He  was  young  and  injudicious, 
and  identified  himself  far  too  much  with  the  Orange 
faction,  so  that  enthusiasm  died.  After  going  to 
Dublin,  Killarney  and  Belfast  he  went  on  to  London- 
derry, and  the  night  of  his  arrival  a  sharp  collision 
took  place  between  the  triumphing  Protestants  and 
the  embittered  Roman  Catholics,  in  which  two  men 
were  killed.  This  led  to  an  unforgettable  incident  at 
Cork.  In  1868  Prince  Alfred  had  made  a  tour  in 
Australia,  which  almost  ended  tragically,  for  while  at 
a  public  breakfast  at  Port  Jackson  he  was  shot  in 
the  back  by  a  Fenian  named  O'Farrell.  The  ball 
entered  near  the  spine  and  ran  round  the  body  without 
touching  any  vital  part.  The  Prince  recovered; 
O'Farrell  it  was  who  died — by  hanging.  The  Queen 
was  in  deep  distress,  weeping  at  any  mention  of  it, 
and  so  she  feared  greatly  while  her  younger  son  was 
in  Ireland. 

At  Cork  two  prisoners,  Costello  and  Colonel 
Warren,  having  been  released,  were  given  a  dinner 


118     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

before  starting  for  America  by  the  mayor  of  the  town, 
a  man  named  O'Sullivan,  who  made  a  long  speech, 
in  many  respects  temperate,  but  at  the  end  alluding 
to  the  presence  of  the  young  prince  in  their  land; 
and  then,  reverting  to  the  Fenians,  he  declared  that 
O'Farrell,  who  had  shot  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  was 
a  noble  and  patriotic  man. 

Prince  Arthur  returned  quite  safely  to  England, 
but  Victoria  was  more  than  ever  embittered  against 
Ireland,  and  a  great  depression  fell  upon  her  for  her- 
self and  her  family,  in  no  way  relieved  by  the  demand 
in  Parliament  that  the  Mayor  of  Cork  should  be  sus- 
pended from  his  functions;  he,  however,  solved  the 
difficulty  by  resigning. 

Disraeli  became  Prime  Minister  in  the  spring  of 
1868.  He  was  sixty-four  years  old,  and  had  worked 
for  this  position  all  his  life  against  tremendous  odds, 
but  he  had  conquered  all;  and  now,  having  attained, 
he  quickly  secured  a  position  of  confidential  trust 
given  to  no  other  man.  Moncure  Conway  said  of 
him :  there  is  "  something  so  picturesque  in  a  Jewish 
lad  bringing  the  royal  family  and  the  aristocracy  to 
his  feet.  He  has  done  it,  too,  in  the  wise  and 
gentle  ways  of  Solomon,  by  unbroken  civility  and 
friendliness." 

So  "the  solitary  gladiator,"  as  Punch  once  called 
him,  ended  at  last  his  long,  lonely  struggle  and  became 
first  man  in  England.  There  was  much  chaff  and  the 
recrudescence  of  many  stories,  one  of  which  lived 
longer  than  himself.  In  1862  he  had  made  a  speech 
in  which  he  said  that  he  "observed  that  there  was  a 


TWO  PRIME  MINISTERS  119 

great  deficiency  in  our  national  character,  and  which, 
if  neglected,  might  lead  to  the  impairing  not  only  of 
our  social  happiness,  but  even  the  sources  of  our  public 
wealth;  and  that  was  a  deficiency  of  culture.  But  he 
was  not  satisfied  in  detecting,  he  resolved  to  supply 
it."  Ever  afterwards  Dizzy's  intention  to  educate  the 
nation  was  a  subject  for  joking. 

His  great  position  was  his  but  for  a  short  time,  his 
Ministry  being  defeated  over  the  second  serious 
measure  brought  forward — Gladstone's  Irish  Church 
Bill.  Sydney  Smith  had  thus  described  the  condition 
of  the  State  Church  in  Ireland  at  the  time — 

"  On  an  Irish  Sabbath  the  bell  of  a  neat  parish 
church  often  summons  to  church  only  the  parson  and 
an  occasional  conforming  clerk,  while  two  hundred 
yards  away  a  thousand  Catholics  are  huddled  together 
in  a  miserable  hovel  and  pelted  by  all  the  storms  of 
heaven." 

For  this  unwanted  and  unused  Church  the  Irish 
peasant  had  to  pay,  and  Gladstone  saw  here  one 
method  of  reducing  Irish  grievance  and  doing  justice 
to  Irish  need.  His  bill  was  to  abolish  the  State  Church 
in  Ireland.  The  country  was  with  him,  the  Queen 
against  him.  She  was  the  head  of  the  Church,  and 
to  interfere  with  that  institution  was  to  aim  a  blow  at 
her  prerogative. 

Disraeli  fought  with  all  his  might,  but  he  was 
defeated  twice,  by  majorities  of  sixty-one  and  sixty- 
five.  What  was  he  to  do  ?  It  was  death  to  his  hopes, 
to  his  long-coveted  eminence.  He  determined  to  con- 
sult his  best  friend,  not  his  wife  but  in  this  case  the 


120    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Queen,  and  he  did  it  without  first  talking  the  matter 
over  with  his  colleagues,  which  made  them  very  wroth. 
He  advised  her  Majesty  to  dissolve  Parliament,  think- 
ing that  the  country  would  surely  return  him;  or,  he 
added  as  an  afterthought,  she  might  prefer  to  appoint 
a  new  Ministry. 

It  broke  the  Queen's  heart  to  part  with  her  pleasant, 
gossipy  minister,  she  shuddered  at  the  thought  of 
having  to  labour  again  under  the  taskmaster  Glad- 
stone, and  she  took  a  day  to  consider  the  question; 
after  which  she  decided  upon  a  dissolution  which  was 
not  to  take  place  until  the  autumn,  when  the  new 
Reform  Bill  would  come  into  operation. 

Then  Disraeli  had  to  explain  the  decision  to  the 
House;  not  at  all,  even  for  his  imperturbable  self,  a 
pleasant  task;  and  in  his  trepidation — that  may  not 
sound  the  right  word,  but  it  is  the  only  one  which 
adequately  explains  his  method  of  doing  it — he  put 
the  burden  of  the  decision  upon  the  shoulders  of  the 
Queen.  The  Prime  Minister's  only  constitutional 
course  after  such  a  defeat  would  have  been  to  resign 
and  let  matters  develop;  he  had  no  right  to  put  two 
ways  before  the  Queen  and  make  her  responsible  for 
a  certain  line  of  policy,  to  expose  her  to  the  anger 
and  distrust  of  a  nation  demanding  justice.  If 
Victoria  had  been  a  statesman  she  would  have  realized 
this,  and  have  refused  to  allow  Disraeli  to  use  her 
partiality  for  him  to  keep  him  in  power. 

There  was  naturally  a  great  and  acrimonious  dis- 
cussion in  the  House,  Disraeli  being  described  as  "  a 
suffering  minister  who  was  holding  office  by  the  wish 


TWO  PRIME  MINISTERS  121 

of  the  Queen  for  the  benefit  of  the  people."  Mr. 
Bright  denounced  the  great  injury  he  had  done  the 
Crown  "by  representing  the  Queen  in  the  character 
of  an  enemy  in  the  cause  of  religious  freedom.  .  .  . 
Any  man  who  puts  the  sovereign  in  the  front  of  a 
great  struggle  like  this,  who  points  to  the  Irish  people 
and  says  from  the  floor  of  this  house,  '  Your  Queen 
holds  the  flag  under  which  we,  the  enemies  of  religious 
equality  and  justice  to  Ireland,  are  marshalled ' — I 
say  that  the  minister  who  does  that  is  guilty  of  a  very 
high  crime  and  a  great  misdemeanour  against  his 
sovereign  and  against  his  country."  It  was  reported 
that  the  Prime  Minister,  in  a  somewhat  pointless  speech, 
entirely  lost  his  temper  and  shook  his  fist  at  Bright. 

The  Duke  of  Richmond  in  the  Lords  did  not  make 
matters  better,  as  he  bluntly  stated  that  the  Queen 
had  refused  to  accept  the  resignation  of  her  minister, 
and  had  given  him  the  freedom  of  dissolving  Parlia- 
ment when  he  chose. 

All  this  was  unfortunate  for  the  Queen's  peace  of 
mind;  not  that  she  repented  showing  so  much  favour 
to  Disraeli,  or  even  believed  that  she  had  exceeded 
the  power  which  the  Constitution  laid  down  for  her; 
but  because  she  was  still  unpopular,  still  the  subject 
of  intense  criticism,  having  met  her  people  solely  by 
paying  a  very  occasional  one,  two  or  three  days'  visit 
to  London  during  the  year.  Thus  her  name  was  still 
prominent  in  a  sinister  fashion,  and  her  flight  to 
Scotland  immediately  after  her  interview  with  Disraeli 
roused  deep  indignation.  She  did  not,  in  popular 
words,  stay  to  face  the  music.  Though  messengers 


122    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

were  sent  to  Balmoral  every  day,  immediate  communi- 
cation with  her  was  impossible,  and  it  was  felt  that, 
whatever  her  virtues,  she  definitely  put  her  pleasure 
before  the  country's  needs.  The  outcry  was  loud 
enough  to  necessitate  an  announcement  that  her 
"journey  to  Scotland  had  been  undertaken  solely  in 
consequence  of  her  health." 

This,  having  been  heard  often  before,  and  Victoria's 
appearance,  when  she  was  seen,  being  generally  one 
of  robustness,  gave  a  turn  to  public  criticism  which 
was  menacing.  It  was  hinted  by  some  and  frankly 
stated  by  other  newspapers  that  if  her  Majesty  was 
ill  the  malady  must  be  mental  as  well  as  physical. 
Contrasts  were  drawn  between  her  appearance  and 
"  the  thin,  pale  face  of  the  gentle  princess  who  had 
so  long  nobly  borne  the  fatigues  of  a  vicarious  queen." 
The  Tory  Press  more  or  less  contented  itself  with 
the  advantage  its  party  had  gained,  the  Liberal  Press 
was  more  outspoken,  the  Sunday  papers  spoke  yet 
more  openly,  and,  needless  to  say,  The  Tomahawk 
went  to  the  extreme — 

"  We  confess  we  are,  with  extreme  reluctance,  com- 
pelled to  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  her  Majesty 
has  no  longer  the  power,  however  earnest  be  her  desire 
or  strong  her  determination,  to  endure  the  strain  in- 
separable from  her  high  office,  and  which  she  has  in 
former  years  so  ably  fulfilled.  If  three  weeks  is  the 
longest  period  which  she  is  able  to  spend  in  the 
Imperial  capital  each  year,  if  all  the  functions  which 
the  Head  of  the  Realm  should  discharge  have  to  be 
vicariously  discharged  by  the  Heir  Apparent  and  his 


TWO   PRIME  MINISTERS  123 

Consort,  it  is  evidently  for  the  true  interest  and  well- 
being  of  the  Queen  as  well  as  of  the  nation  that  a 
Regency  Bill  should  be  passed  as  soon  as  possible. 
Six  years  is  a  long  probation,  and  if  the  energies  of 
the  Queen  are  still  so  overwhelmed  by  her  great  sorrow 
as  to  affect  materially  the  discharge  of  her  important 
duties,  it  is  surely  far  more  considerate  towards  both 
the  Sovereign  and  the  woman  that  she  should  be 
relieved  from  the  distressing  weight  which  the  un- 
avoidable neglect  of  such  duties  must  occasion  to  her 
sensitive  and  conscientious  nature.  At  present  her 
Majesty  cannot  but  feel  the  deepest  regret  that, 
through  her  own  infirmities,  so  much  inconvenience 
and  loss  of  time  should  be  inflicted  on  her  ministers 
in  carrying  on  any  communication  with  her  during  this 
very  urgent  crisis,  and  cannot  but  resent  acutely  the 
faintest  hint  of  a  suspicion  that  her  absence  is  owing 
to  any  want  of  courage  or  self-denial." 

The  article  then  set  out  the  qualities  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales  for  the  post  of  Regent,  his  zeal,  courage, 
detachment  from  politics,  knowledge  of  foreign 
countries,  etc.,  and  then  pointed  out  how,  "released 
from  the  ties  of  ceremonial  duties,  relieved  from  a 
sense  of  continual  disappointment  and  vexation,  and 
purged  from  all  suspicions,  however  ungenerous,  our 
beloved  Queen  will  be  able  to  enjoy  an  honourable 
retirement,  cheered  by  the  undimmed  affection  of  her 
subjects.  .  .  .  She  will  be  able  to  revel  in  the  con- 
genial solitudes  of  Osborne  and  Balmoral  without  any 
reproach,  and  to  devote  her  leisure  time  to  any  pursuits 
which  her  inclination  may  select." 


124    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

These  sentiments  were  repeated  elsewhere.  A 
member  of  Parliament  named  Reardon  gave  notice 
in  May  that  he  should  address  this  question  to  the 
House :  "  Whether  it  be  true  that  her  Majesty  the 
Queen  has  been  compelled  through  delicate  health  to 
retire  from  England  during  the  remainder  of  this 
session;  and  if  so,  whether  it  is  the  intention  of  her 
Majesty's  Government,  out  of  consideration  to  her 
Majesty's  health,  comfort  and  tranquillity,  and  in 
the  interest  of  the  royal  family  and  of  her  Majesty's 
subjects  throughout  the  empire,  and  especially  of  this 
metropolis,  to  advise  her  Majesty  to  abdicate." 

This  question  raised  cries  of  "  Order !  "  and  much 
indignation,  but  that  it  could  be  asked  at  all  was  a 
notable  sign  of  the  feeling  of  the  time. 

That  Queen  Victoria  was  not  in  very  good  health 
is  more  than  probable.  Her  adjustment  to  the  lonely 
circumstances  of  her  widowhood  was  not  really  com- 
plete, she  was  determined  to  walk  only  by  the  rule 
she  had  laid  down  for  herself  in  the  first  days,  and 
it  was  no  easy  matter  always  to  judge  what  the  Prince 
would  have  done.  So,  distrusting  her  own  decisions, 
she  was  ever  feeling  after  the  ideas  of  another,  with 
the  result  that  her  nerves  were  over  sensitive,  and  any 
disturbance  of  the  usual  produced  headache.  The 
crisis  in  the  Government  was  quite  enough  to  upset 
her. 

This  August  the  Queen  made  the  first  of  her  visits 
abroad  under  the  name  of  the  Duchess  of  Kent,  going 
to  Switzerland,  and  accepting  from  Louis  Napoleon 
the  loan  of  his  train  through  France.  On  her  return 


TWO  PRIME  MINISTERS  125 

she  went  to  Balmoral,  and  spent  part  of  her  Highland 
visit  in  a  new  house  which  she  had  built  for  herself : 
"  the  widow's  first  house,  not  built  by  him,  or  hallowed 
by  his  memory."  She  called  it  the  Glassalt  Shiel, 
and  it  was  in  a  wild  and  lonely  country,  at  one  end 
of  Loch  MuFck,  the  other  three  sides  being  bounded 
within  a  few  hundred  yards  by  rocky  mountains.  She 
regarded  this  place  as  in  full  keeping  with  her  con- 
dition, and  there  she  could  be  quite  away  from  all 
Court  and  State  requirements.  It  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at  that,  while  she  was  in  such  a  morbid  state 
of  mind,  there  were  people  who  thought  she  would 
be  happier  dissociated  from  the  active  work  of  govern- 
ing. She  remained  in  the  north  until  late  in  Novem- 
ber, and  only  returned  in  time  to  take  leave  of  her 
ministers,  for  the  Liberals  had  a  majority  of  128  at 
the  elections.  Seeing  what  a  crushing  defeat  it  was, 
Disraeli  refused  to  meet  Parliament  again,  and  at 
once  resigned  office. 

The  Queen  offered  him  a  baronetcy,  which  he  re- 
fused, and  then,  to  show  her  appreciation  of  him,  she 
bestowed  upon  Mrs.  Disraeli  the  title  of  Viscountess 
Beaconsfield,  an  honour  which  touched  his  heart  in 
its  tenderest  spot.  Disraeli  was  said  to  be  the  first 
Prime  Minister  without  armorial  bearings,  and  the 
heralds  had  to  supply  a  coat-of-arms.  When  he  read 
the  description  and  found  the  words,  "  Supporters 
gorged,"  he  remarked — 

"  Now  that  is  absurd !  I  have  done  my  best  to 
stuff  my  supporters,  but  I  could  never  appease  their 
hunger,  much  less  gorge  them.  If  it  is  heraldic,  my 


126    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

dear,  let  our  supporters  be  described  as  voracious, 
not  gorged." 

When  subsequently  a  telegram  was  brought  to 
Gladstone  from  the  Queen  it  was  taken  to  him  into 
the  park,  where  he  was  felling  a  tree,  with  Evelyn 
Ashley  holding  his  coat.  He  went  on  with  his  work 
for  a  little,  then,  resting  on  the  handle  of  his  axe, 
said  with  deep  earnestness — 

"  My  mission  is  to  appease  Ireland." * 

Mr.  Bright,  once  so  anti-royal,  was  persuaded  to 
join  the  new  Cabinet,  which  gave  pleasure  to  the 
Queen,  for  she  believed  in  his  sincerity,  and  on  the 
last  Saturday  of  the  year  he  was  invited  to  dine  and 
sleep  at  Windsor  and  to  receive  the  seals  of  office. 
Victoria,  with  that  kindly  carefulness  which  charac- 
terized her  when  she  had  to  meet  people,  allowed  him 
to  modify  his  Court  dress  by  omitting  the  sword,  in 
accordance  with  his  Quaker  principles,  and  it  was 
intimated  to  him  that  she  wished  him  to  omit  any  part 
of  the  ceremonial  which  was  repugnant  to  his  con- 
science. He  had  replied  that  he  objected  to  kneeling, 
so  when  her  Majesty  gave  him  the  seals  she  held  out 
her  hand,  saying — 

"  Mr.  Bright,  we  dispense  with  the  kneeling." 

Mr.  Ward  Hunt,  who  had  been  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  in  Disraeli's  Cabinet,  had  not  asked  or 
wished  to  be  exempt  from  kneeling  before  his  Queen ; 
and  as  he  was  six  feet  four  inches  high,  weighing 
twenty  stones,  he  made  an  astonishing  figure,  being 
taller  than  Victoria  even  in  that  attitude. 

1  Life  of  Gladstone.     By  John  Morley. 


BENJAMIN  DISRAELI 


TWO  PRIME  MINISTERS  127 

One  picturesque  and  turbulent  figure  passed  away 
this  year  definitely  from  the  councils  of  England,  and 
this  was  Henry  Brougham,  who  died  in  his  sleep  at 
the  Villa  Eleanor,  Cannes,  at  the  age  of  ninety,  his 
last  mania  having  been  the  collection  of  hymns.  When 
Lord  Derby  took  office  after  the  death  of  Palmerston, 
Brougham  made  his  last  appearance  on  the  political 
stage,  coming  into  the  House  with  Lord  John  Russell 
and  Lord  Derby,  all  three  looking  very  broken  and  old. 

After  Disraeli's  interview  with  Victoria  at  the  last 
Privy  Council  Meeting  of  his  Government  he  was 
seen  to  come  out  of  the  royal  closet  in  great  excite- 
ment, and  Lord  Malmesbury,  who  met  and  spoke  to 
him,  was  pushed  aside,  with  the  words — 

"  Don't  bring  any  more  bothers  before  me ;  I  have 
enough  already  to  drive  a  man  mad." 

The  trouble  was  that  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
had  inconsiderately  died,  and  the  Premier  wished  to 
appoint  Dr.  Colenso  in  his  place.  The  Queen,  how- 
ever, had  already  chosen  the  man,  Archibald  Campbell 
Tait,  to  whom  good  fortune  had  come  through  mis- 
fortune. For  when,  in  less  elevated  clerical  rank,  he 
had  lost  five  children  at  once  by  scarlet  fever,  and  this 
was  brought  to  the  Queen's  notice,  she  strove  to  com- 
pensate him  by  inducing  Palmerston  to  give  him  the 
Bishopric  of  Carlisle.  The  next  step  was  to  make 
him  Bishop  of  London,  and  now,  again  over  the  heads 
of  his  seniors,  he  received  the  highest  ecclesiastical 
post  in  the  kingdom,  which  was  considered  by  many 
as  an  injustice,  induced  by  sentiment. 

Victoria,   though   having  no  great  regard   for  the 


128     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

office  of  bishop,  was  extremely  keen  upon  choosing 
all  bishops  herself,  and  she  made  her  choice  generally 
with  a  frank  disregard  of  rule  or  right,  her  standard 
being  simplicity,  lack  of  rhetoric  and  ceremonial;  to 
this  was  added  the  factor  of  personal  liking  on  her 
part.  It  was  thus  that  Wilberforce,  Stanley  and 
Bradley  were  raised  to  high  honours. 

In  February  1869,  deploring  the  introduction  of 
the  discussion  on  the  Irish  Church  and  lamenting  the 
loss  of  Disraeli,  Victoria  refused  to  open  Parliament, 
on  the  score  of  ill  health,  and  she  passed  the  session 
in  great  tribulation  of  spirit  over  the  bill.  Hoping 
to  secure  compromise,  she  invoked  the  advice  of  the 
Bishop  of  Peterborough,  and  wrote  on  February  12, 
1869,  to  Gladstone  that  she  strongly  deprecated  the 
hasty  introduction  of  the  measure,  which  would  serve 
only  to  commit  the  Government  to  proposals  from 
which  they  could  not  recede,  "  while  it  is  certain,  from 
what  the  bishop  says,  that  they  would  not  be  accepted 
on  the  other  side."  The  bill  was,  however,  read  the 
third  time,  with  a  majority  of  114. 

In  face  of  this  it  was  little  use  fighting,  save  for 
modification,  and  her  Majesty  continued  to  take  daily 
interest  in  the  progress  of  the  bill ;  yet  at  the  fiercest 
point  of  the  struggle,  when  the  Lords,  taking  up  the 
Die-hard  attitude,  were  trying  to  destroy  it  by  intro- 
ducing sixty-one  amendments,  and  incidentally  to 
weaken  their  own  power,  she  went  to  Scotland. 

"  How  much  more  effectually  could  the  Queen  assist 
in  the  settlement  of  this  question  if  she  were  not  six 
hundred  miles  off,"  wrote  Gladstone. 


129 

On  the  first  reading  Tait  voted  against  it,  but 
Wilberforce  gave  his  vote  for  it,  whereupon  some  one 
said — 

*  The  Bishop  of  Oxford  is  going  the  wrong  way." 

"No,"  replied  Lord  Chelmsford;  "he  is  going  the 
road  to  Winchester." 

There  was  much  strong  language  in  the  higher 
House,  Lord  Winchelsea  offering  to  lay  his  head  on 
the  block  rather  than  accede,  Gladstone  being  labelled 
Jack  Cade,  and  Lord  Grey  becoming  so  violent  that 
the  Duke  of  Argyll  fastened  upon  him  the  now  famous 
title  of  "  the  chartered  libertine  of  debate." 

The  Commons  refused  the  amendments,  the  Lords 
refused  conciliation,  and  at  last  even  Disraeli l  was 
alarmed  and  thoroughly  frightened  at  the  state  of 
the  political  parties  and  the  country,  for  it  was  felt 
that  the  Lords  were  in  imminent  danger.  The  Queen, 
from  a  distance,  worked  hard  writing  to  every  one, 
pointing  out  ways  of  agreement  and  appealing  to  Tait 
to  induce  the  bishops  to  avoid  pushing  matters  to 
extremes.  It  was  Lord  Cairns  who  eventually  linked 
the  dissentient  parties  and  secured  an  agreement. 
Though  the  Queen  disliked  the  bill  extremely  she 
eventually  saw  that  the  country  demanded  it,  and  she 
feared  more  than  the  bill  a  conflict  between  the  two 
Houses,  such  as  would  inevitably  injure  the  House  of 
Lords.  Thus  she  hailed  with  relief  the  agreement 
which  secured  the  passage  of  the  bill  and  saved  the 
Lords  intact. 

1   Memorandum  by  Sir  Robert  Phillimore. 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE    BELOVED    GERMANY 

"There  will  be  no  kingdom  for  our  son  unless  you  fight 
Germany." — Eugenie  to  Louis  Napoleon.  1870. 

"  What  swine  !  They  are  full  of  vexation  and  envy  because 
we  have  fought  great  battles  here — and  won  them.  They  cannot 
bear  to  think  that  shabby  little  Prussia  should  prosper  so.  The 
Prussians  are  a  people  which  should  merely  exist  in  order  to 
carry  on  war  for  them  in  their  pay.  That  is  the  view  taken  by 
all  the  upper  classes  in  England.  They  have  never  been  well 
disposed  towards  us,  and  have  always  done  their  utmost  to 
injure  us.  .  .  .  The  Crown  Princess  herself  is  an  incarnation  of 
this  way  of  thinking.  She  is  full  of  her  own  great  condescension 
in  marrying  into  our  country.  I  remember  her  once  telling  me 
that  two  or  three  merchant  families  in  Liverpool  had  more  silver 
plate  than  the  entire  Prussian  nobility.  '  Yes,'  I  replied,  '  that 
is  possible,  your  Royal  Highness,  but  we  value  ourselves  for 
other  things  besides  silver  plate.'  " — Prince  Bismarck  on 
England.  1870. 

QUEEN  VICTORIA'S  fiftieth  birthday  was  spent  at 
Balmoral,  where  the  Scotch  peasants  and  servants  were 
given  every  opportunity  of  rejoicing;  the  Queen 
herself  principally  observing  the  day  by  bestowing 
the  Garter  upon  Prince  Leopold  and  the  Order  of  the 
Thistle  on  Prince  Arthur. 

On  her  return  from  the  north  the  Khedive  of  Egypt 
was  in  London,  and  it  was  a  sign  that  Victoria  was 
regaining,  however  slowly,  a  normal  state  of  mind, 

that  she  invited  him  to  stay  at  Windsor,  held  a  review 

130 


THE   BELOVED    GERMANY          131 

for  him  in  Windsor  Great  Park,  and  stayed  a  night  at 
Buckingham  Palace  that  she  might  be  present  at  a 
breakfast  or  garden  party  given  in  his  honour.  At 
this  function  the  wind  was  bitterly  cold,  causing  the 
gorgeous  refreshment  tents  and  the  drawing-room  tent 
to  be  crowded,  while  every  one  was  admiring  or 
criticizing  the  way  in  which  the  Prince  of  Wales  and 
about  thirty  of  his  friends  had  at  last  solved  the  knotty 
question  of  how  to  dress  for  such  an  occasion.  Blue 
coats  with  brass  buttons  were  the  choice,  a  fashion 
which,  if  odd  in  itself,  was  better  than  the  earlier 
impecunious-waiter  mode  of  evening  coats  and  morn- 
ing trousers.  Later  in  the  week  there  was  a  great 
review  at  Aldershot,  and  then  the  Prince  of  Wales 
sped  the  departing  guest  from  Charing  Cross,  and 
the  Egyptian  visitor  was  this  time  really  gratified  by 
the  royal  attention  shown  him. 

The  one  public  event  in  which  the  Queen  took  part 
1869  was  the  opening  of  Blackfriars  Bridge  and 
the  Holborn  Viaduct,  and  this  she  did  with  all  the 
outward  observance  of  full  state,  the  first  time  the 
state  coach  had  been  out  since  her  widowhood.  The 
people,  anxious  to  let  her  know  what  they  could  do, 
showed  tremendous  enthusiasm  in  their  welcome,  and 
though  there  was  an  undercurrent  of  darkness  and 
anxiety,  it  was  kept  hidden  from  royal  eyes. 

The  workless  population  of  London— and  there 
were  many  thousands— decided  to  descend  in  a  mass 
upon  the  route  and  exhibit  themselves  in  all  their 
wretched  poverty  before  their  sovereign;  but  their 
intention  became  known,  and  the  influence  of  the 


132     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

trade  unions  was  invoked  to  prevent  this.  The 
Fenians,  too,  had  their  scheme  of  upsetting  the 
harmony  of  the  day,  a  placard  being  sent  out  bearing 
the  following  awful  inscription— 

"To  all   Fenians. 
Vive  la  Republique ! 

The  Queen  will  visit  the  City  in  state  on  Saturday, 
and  on  that  day  she  will  be  shot.  She  seldom  gives  a 
chance.  The  opportunity  won't  be  lost. 

God  save  Ireland  ! 

Shirley  Brooks,  in  relating  the  fact,  added,  :'  I 
hope  the  beast  who  wrote  it  will  be  bitten  by  a  mad 
dog." 

Each  year  of  the  Queen's  reign  seems  to  have 
brought  its  own  big  event  or  anxiety.  The  anxiety 
was  accentuated  by  the  fact  that  her  opinions  had 
become  definitely  crystallized  into  conservatism,  and 
her  Governments  were  so  far  generally  Liberal.  The 
great  event  of  1870  was  the  Franco-German  War,  but 
there  were  minor  troubles  to  endure.  There  was 
Gladstone's  Irish  Land  Bill,  which  aimed  at  giving 
to  all  Ireland  the  "  tenant  rights "  which  had  never 
been  niched  from  Ulster,  and  the  retention  of  which 
has  been  the  secret  of  the  success  of  North  Ireland. 
This  Bill  she  liked  no  better  than  the  Irish  Church 
Bill. 

Her  energetic  Government  raised  another  question 
which  was  personally  offensive  to  her,  and  that  con- 
cerned the  sleepy  ways  of  her  cousin,  George  of 
Cambridge,  the  commander-in-chief,  and  she  found 
herself  obliged  to  play  a  losing  hand  over  the  right 


QUEEN  VICTORIA  IN  1865 


THE    BELOVED    GERMANY          133 

claimed  by  the  Crown  to  command  the  army  irrespec- 
tive of  parliamentary  interference.  The  Duke  had 
been  appointed  in  1855  to  the  chieftainship  of  the 
army  by  Albert-Victoria,  not  for  his  qualities  as  a 
soldier,  but  that  they  might  concentrate  the  command 
of  the  army  in  themselves.  George  of  Cambridge  was 
kindly  enough,  but  he  was,  like  many  of  the  Georges, 
far  from  clever,  and  he  was  but  the  veil  which  hid  the 
real  headship  of  the  Queen.  Albert  had  felt  strongly 
that  the  monarch  should  have  full  control  of  the  army, 
and  would  have  taken  the  post  himself  in  1850  had 
he  not  already  known  his  hands  to  be  full  and  that 
such  an  appointment  would  have  added  greatly  to 
his  unpopularity.  It  was  the  Germanic  system  grafted 
upon  our  Constitution,  and  was  extremely  dangerous 
in  that  it  seemingly  gave  military  power  over  to  one 
person  who  had  neither  the  knowledge,  aptitude  nor 
time  necessary  to  wield  it,  and  who  was  wedded  to 
ancient  theories  of  use  and  prerogative.  From  the 
day  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  our  army  had  dwindled 
until  it  was  declared  during  the  Danish  war  that  we 
could  only  have  put  twenty  thousand  men  into  the 
field. 

Palmerston,  during  the  last  five  years  of  his  life,  had, 
with  his  moribund  Parliament,  enjoyed  a  siesta  of 
inaction  which  but  poorly  prepared  the  Queen  for  the 
strenuous  times  that  were  coming  under  Gladstone 
and  his  new  brooms  who  were  intending  to  sweep  as 
cleanly  as  possible.  Thus  when  Cardwell,  later 
Viscount  Cardwell,  became  War  Secretary  in  1869, 
and  Childers  went  to  the  Admiralty,  they  found  both 


134     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

army  and  navy  in  an  alarming  state  of  inefficiency. 
France  was  superior  to  England  in  ironclads,  while 
Russia  and  Italy  combined  equalled  her.  In  1866  Sir 
John  Pakington  had  asked  for  supplies  to  build  six 
turret  ships,  and  the  Chancellor  Disraeli  opposed  the 
suggestion,  refusing  to  allow  £50,000  that  even  one 
might  be  begun.  The  statements  made  then  awoke 
public  attention  to  both  army  and  navy,  and  various 
short-sighted  actions  of  the  Duke  of  Cambridge's — 
such  as  condemning  a  young  lieutenant  for  some  mis- 
demeanour to  wear  his  uniform  on  all  occasions  for 
a  year  as  a  punishment,  thus  turning  an  honour  into 
a  disgrace — kept  the  matter  alive.  Many  people  were 
astonished  and  relieved  when  in  answer  to  a  question 
in  the  House  in  February  1869  Cardwell  replied — 

'  The  Duke  of  Cambridge  is  not  Commander-in- 
Chief,  but  a  Field  Marshal  commanding  in  chief," 
a  distinction  which  had  not  been  understood  by  the 
majority.  To  this  he  added  the  still  more  surprising 
information  that  the  Duke  was  under  the  command 
of  himself,  who  intended  that  he  should  remain  so. 

England  waited  for  developments,  and  was  not 
altogether  disappointed. 

Sir  E.  M.  Grant  Duff  tells  that  Gladstone  one  day 
met  Cardwell  and  Childers  walking  in  Bond  Street, 
and  the  former  said  to  him — 

"We  have  come  to  a  decision.  We  are  going  to 
alter  the  arrangements  of  the  War  Office  and  get  rid 
of  the  Duke  of  Cambridge." 

"  Good  gracious  !  "  replied  Gladstone.  "  You  have 
just  come  into  office ;  you  have  enemies  enough  already 


THE    BELOVED    GERMANY          135 

and  to  spare !  Do  you  really  mean  to  add  to  them 
the  undying  hostility  of  the  Court  ?  " 

This  may  have  cooled  the  ardour  of  the  two 
ministers,  for  the  Duke  of  Cambridge  held  his  post 
for  a  long  time,  and  a  Punch  cartoon  gave  the  key  to 
the  situation,  saying — 

"  Look  here,  Cardwell,  you  say  you  can  keep 
George  up  to  his  work !  Mind  you  do,  or,  by  Jingo, 
I  shall  advise  her  Majesty  to  sack  you  both." 

Mr.  Cardwell  had  made  the  first  step  and  had  inci- 
dentally raised  the  first  pang  of  surprised  anger  in 
the  Queen's  breast  at  the  idea  of  a  new  infringement 
of  her  prerogative.  The  Duke  of  Cambridge  could 
no  longer  be  regarded  as  commander  of  the  national 
forces  subject  only  to  her  Majesty.  The  War 
Minister  did,  however,  go  further,  by  bringing  forward 
a  scheme  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  army,  one  clause 
being  the  abolition  of  the  purchase  of  commissions 
and  the  substitution  of  promotion  for  personal  merit. 

The  purchase  system  had  become  one  of  extreme 
danger  both  to  the  army  and  the  country,  and  as  it 
was  a  class  arrangement  it  was  bitterly  fought  through 
both  houses  when  Gladstone  made  it  one  of  his 
essential  reforms.  It  raised  such  keen  feeling  that  for 
the  first  time  obstruction  in  its  modern  form  took  the 
place  of  opposition.  That  the  question  of  loss  should 
not  destroy  the  Bill,  Gladstone  proposed  to  buy  the 
commissions  back  at  the  extraordinary  values  set  upon 
them  by  the  holders.  It  passed  the  Commons  by  a 
small  majority,  but  the  Lords  were  determined  this 
time  to  fight  to  a  finish. 


136    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Victoria  once  more  found  herself  on  the  side  of 
ancient  things,  and  from  the  quiet  of  her  far  retreat 
watched  events  with  anger  and  distrust.  Then  to  her 
horror  she  suddenly  found  herself  drawn  into  the 
centre  of  the  dispute.  Gladstone  knew  entirely  the 
temper  and  the  intention  of  the  Lords,  and  foresaw 
months  spent  in  discussing  a  reform  which  was  essen- 
tial to  the  safety  of  the  nation,  ending,  perhaps,  with 
a  terrible  upheaval  which  would  do  much  more  damage 
to  the  Upper  than  to  the  Lower  House.  He  had  all 
through  been  in  unremitting  correspondence  with  the 
Queen,  and  had  done  his  best  to  soothe  her  contention 
that  he  was  infringing  her  personal  rights.  At  last 
he  proved  to  her  that  Commission  purchase  was  in- 
stituted by  an  Act  of  George  III,  which  left  it  to  the 
discretion  of  the  sovereign  to  continue  the  practice, 
and  that  George  had  used  his  discretion  in  so  con- 
tinuing it. 

Thus  in  July,  when  the  Lords  were  joyfully  con- 
templating the  destruction  of  the  Bill  by  amendments, 
the  Queen  was  being  persuaded  to  sign  a  warrant 
reversing  that  of  her  grandfather.  She  hated  the  deed, 
but  she  knew  that  the  country  was  with  the  Bill,  and 
she  was  under  the  spell  of  Gladstone's  strong  deter- 
mination. It  must  have  been  one  of  the  occasions 
when  he  had  "to  harden  his  heart  to  a  flint."  The 
compensation  he  offered  her  was  that  by  this  act  she 
was  giving  public  evidence  of  the  power  of  the  Crown, 
one  which  pleased  her  and  took  the  bitterness  out  of 
the  transaction. 

"  She  made  no  sort  of  difficulty  in  signing  the  war- 


THE   BELOVED    GERMANY          137 

rant,"  said  Lord  Halifax,  the  minister  in  attendance, 
"  but  she  asked  a  formal  expression  of  the  Cabinet's 
advice  as  she  was  using  her  power  in  opposition  to  the 
House  of  Lords." 

The  deed  caused  a  sudden  cessation  of  the  storm; 
then  after  the  first  surprise  it  burst  again  in  full  fury; 
anathemas  rang  through  the  land,  and  piteous  stories 
were  told  of  the  brutal  Prime  Minister  who  had 
literally  forced  her  Majesty  to  sign  this  warrant  against 
her  will,  who  overturned  the  Constitution,  robbed  the 
officers  and  wished  to  destroy  the  army.  The  incident 
did  not  cause  Victoria  to  like  her  Prime  Minister  any 
better;  but  had  not  Gladstone  done  this  in  spite  of 
her  opposition,  we  should  never  have  had  a  Sir  John 
French,  the  son  of  an  unmoneyed  naval  captain,  as 
head  of  the  army's  aristocracy  of  merit. 

There  was  another  man  whom  the  Queen  did  not  like, 
and  that  was  Louis  Napoleon.  She  always  distrusted 
him,  most  people  did,  and  Bismarck  was  busy  just  now 
getting  articles  inserted  into  the  London  Press  which 
aimed  at  producing  anger  in  England  against  France, 
for  he  felt  himself  now  in  deadly  need  of  keeping 
France  isolated.  Napoleon  III  had  been  a  great 
figure,  dominating  Europe;  he  had  dreamed  great 
dreams,  which  sometimes  came  to  reality,  but  towards 
this  last  year  he  had  lost  health  and  confidence.  He 
wanted  to  sit  quietly  writing  a  book  on  Caesar,  and 
his  enthusiastic  wife  dragged  him  into  noisy  discus- 
sions on  Poland,  Mexico  and  the  future  of  their  son. 
He  was  already  a  broken  man  before  1870,  and  he 
had  no  desire  for  war. 


138    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

The  man  who  wanted  war  was  Bismarck.  He  had 
raised  Prussia  upon  the  shoulders  of  a  united  Germany 
to  the  pinnacle  of  European  supremacy.  Denmark 
and  Austria  he  had  stamped  under  his  feet.  Now  he 
wanted  to  fulfil  a  plan  made  twelve  years  earlier,  when 
he  had  said  that  as  soon  as  he  could  win  the  friend- 
ship of  Russia  he  intended  to  conquer  France.  He 
had  wooed  Russia  ever  since;  the  human  sacrifice  of 
Poles  had  been  to  this  end,  and  now  he  had  succeeded 
by  whispering  the  words  "  Black  Sea  Fleet."  So  he 
turned  his  attention  to  France,  the  strongest  empire 
in  Europe,  and  he  determined  to  act  quickly  before 
Russia  could  repent. 

Napoleon  was  a  little  disturbed  from  his  dreams, 
and  felt  feebly  for  an  ally  in  Austria;  then  he  turned 
to  the  Powers  and  demanded  that  the  Luxemburg 
question,  left  open  since  the  Danish  war,  should  be 
settled,  for  the  presence  of  Prussian  guns  on  its  forts 
pointing  over  his  land  at  last  struck  him  with  an  air 
of  menace.  By  the  intervention  of  England  this 
matter  was  adjusted,  and  the  little  state  was  declared, 
with  the  assent  of  all,  a  permanently  neutral  country, 
its  forts  being  dismantled. 

This  was  a  check  to  Prussia,  but  the  wily  Chancellor 
found  in  it  a  pretext  for  a  quarrel,  declaring  that 
Napoleon  himself  had  tried  to  secure  Luxemburg  for 
France.  There  had  been  some  secret  suggestions, 
which  Bismarck  himself  was  accused  by  some  of  having 
prompted.  In  1869  Prussia  sent  picked  troops  to  the 
north  to  engage  in  gigantic  manoeuvres,  and  the  Queen 
of  Holland  wrote  warning  letters  to  Napoleon  about 


THE   BELOVED    GERMANY          139 

Prussian  intentions.  But  Kismet  had  entered  into 
his  soul,  and  he  made  no  preparations.  England 
might  have  influenced  events,  but  all  she  did  was  to 
revile  him.  He  could  not  understand  it,  nor  could 
he  tell  why  England's  queen,  who  had  so  gratefully 
accepted  his  train  for  her  journey  through  France, 
should  now  turn  so  bitterly  against  him.  Perhaps  he 
never  knew  that  in  his  great  defeat  she  said  harshly 
that  it  was  "a  righteous  punishment  upon  him." 
Certainly  he  did  not  know  at  the  time  that  Queen 
Victoria  sat  in  the  little  Craithie  church  listening  to 
her  dear  Dr.  Macleod,  the  clergyman  who  knew  so 
well  how  to  reach  her  heart,  while  he  preached  a 
sermon  which,  as  it  echoed  her  sentiments,  she  judged 
to  be  "splendid." 

'"'  Without  mentioning  France,  he  made  every  one 
understand  what  was  meant  (when  he  pointed  out  how 
God  would  punish  wickedness,  vanity  and  sensuality). 
And  the  chapters  he  read  .  .  .  were  really  quite  won- 
derful for  the  way  in  which  they  seemed  to  describe 
France.  It  was  all  admirable  and  heart  stirring."  x 
One  of  the  chapters  was  Isaiah  xxviii,  crying  woe 
upon  drunkards  :  "  They  are  swallowed  up  of  wine, 
they  are  out  of  the  way  through  strong  drink,  they  err 
in  vision,  they  stumble  in  judgment.  For  all  tables 
are  full  of  vomit  and  filthiness,  for  there  is  no  place 
clean." 

Poor  wicked   France   and  poor  Louis   Napoleon ! 
How  he  had  been  beloved  fifteen  years  earlier !     But 
since  then   he  had  won   from   Austria  some   of  her 
1  Queen's  Diary. 


140    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

filched  possessions ;  and  now  he  was  opposed  to  the 
dear  Germany,  in  which  lay  the  interests  of  her 
children. 

A  German  scheme  to  put  a  Hohenzollern  on  the 
throne  of  Spain,  thus  sandwiching  France  between  two 
of  that  family,  caused  disagreement,  but  the  matter 
was  in  process  of  being  arranged,  and  Emperor 
William  wrote  a  telegram  from  Ems,  which  would 
have  smoothed  negotiations.  It  passed  through  the 
hands  of  Bismarck,  who  made  important  deletions, 
and  war  was  declared.1 


1  It  should  never  be  forgotten  by  Englishmen  that  one  of 
Germany's  methods  in  making1  war  is  to  secure  the  assistance 
of  the  Press  in  each  country.  Thus,  at  this  time  many  articles 
appeared  in  English  papers  which  were  written  by  Busch,  or 
some  other  tool  of  Bismarck.  In  July  1870  he  caused  to  be 
inserted  in  "non-official  German  papers  and  in  the  Belgian  and 
English  Press  paragraphs  about  the  way  the  English  observed 
neutrality.  .  .  .  They  impartially  permit  both  sides  to  purchase 
horses  and  munitions  of  war  in  England.  It  is  unfortunate, 
however,  that  France  alone  can  avail  herself  of  this  liberality, 
as  will  appear  from  a  glance  at  the  geographical  position  of 
the  two  countries,  and  from  the  superiority  of  the  French  at 
sea." 

This  point  was  laboured  for  some  time,  Lord  Granville  being 
accused  of  favouring  France,  and  the  result  was  a  flutter  in 
England  among  politicians,  a  Bill  being  suggested  to  amend  the 
laws  regulating  neutrality.  So  easily  did  we  fall  into  the  German 
trap  !  However,  Bismarck  came  to  the  decision  to  let  matters 
drop  because,  though  Granville  was  not  what  they  desired,  he 
was  not  prejudiced,  and  if  he  were  overthrown  his  successor 
might  be  worse.  All  this  and  much  more  of  the  same  kind  can 
be  read  in  the  various  books  on  Bismarck,  written  by  Busch, 
notably  Some  Secret  Pages  of  Bismarck's  History.  Any  English 
newspaper  which  plays  into  a  German  enemy's  hand  is  open 
to  suspicion. 


THE   BELOVED    GERMANY          141 

Victoria's  two  sons-in-law,  "  Fritz "  and  Louis  of 
Hesse,  were  commanding  portions  of  the  German 
army,  and  the  Queen  followed  their  actions  keenly, 
and  was  also  constantly  in  correspondence  with  the 
Crown  Princess  and  Princess  Alice,  sending  them 
hospital  material.  The  latter  wrote  to  her  mother — 

"  How  I  sympathize  with  you,  for  I  know  with  what 
fervour  you  wish  well  to  Germany.  All  the  world 
knows  well  the  services  rendered  to  Germany  by 
England,  the  dangers  that  England  has  warded  off 
from  her,  and  that  all  is  owing  to  your  wisdom,  to  your 
experience,  to  your  sentiments,  which  are  sincere  and 
just.  You  will  be  happy,  I  am  sure,  to  know  how 
universally  your  work  is  recognized  and  appreciated. 
What  would  dear  papa  have  thought  of  this  war  ?  The 
unity  of  Germany  would  have  pleased  him,  but  not 
the  brutal  means  by  which  it  has  been  founded." 

Prussia  now  was  Prussia  then.  The  Standard, 
which  kept  itself  free  from  the  taint  of  Prussian  money, 
published  accounts  of  vindictive  and  dishonourable 
acts.  Whole  villages  had  been  put  to  the  flames, 
civilians  had  been  thrust  back  to  die  in  their  burning 
houses,  public  buildings  and  hospitals  were  shelled. 
Bismarck  sneered  at  these  revelations  as  manufactured 
in  England,  or  as  the  ravings  of  ignorant  villagers 
who  wanted  to  be  revenged  for  their  losses.  But  these 
things  caused  the  beginning  of  a  reaction  in  England, 
and  other  things  learned  from  her  daughters  softened 
the  Queen's  heart  to  France. 

When  Bismarck  arranged  the  bombardment  of 
Paris,  he  found  himself  foiled,  as  neither  the  Emperor 


142     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

nor  the  Crown  Prince  would  allow  it.  He  laid  the 
fault  at  the  doors  of  Queen  Augusta,  the  Crown 
Princess,  and  chiefly  of  Queen  Victoria,  who  through 
her  letters  held  the  two  men  back.  He  hated  all 
women  who  were  clever,  or  who  meddled  in  public 
affairs,  and  at  this  great  crisis  of  his  life  he  was  pinned 
down  by  three  women.  He  loathed  them  with  all  his 
heart,  talked  of  them  freely  to  those  around  him : 
'  There  are  also  female  snobs  and  very  distinguished 
ones.  The  feminine  half  of  our  Court  are  snobs,  our 
two  most  exalted  ladies  are  snobs."  For  Victoria 
his  hate  was  the  hate  of  the  man  who — far  as  he  had 
climbed — knew  he  could  never  get  to  the  top.  Shortly, 
he  was  jealous.  He  knew  well  enough  how  Victoria 
had  played  into  Prussian  hands;  he  knew  that  she 
did  it  blindly  as  far  as  European  politics  went;  he 
knew  that  it  resulted  from  her  affection  for  Germany 
because  of  her  own  birth,  her  husband  and  her  chil- 
dren. And  he  hated  her  the  more  for  it.  For  what- 
ever he  did  he  knew  that  he  could  not  make  Prussia 
supreme  over  England.  So  he  wrote  contemptuously 
of  the  "  Coburg-Belgium-English  clique,"  thus  dump- 
ing together  Victoria,  Ernst  and  Leopold  II. 

The  ineffable  Ernst  was  like  a  creature  on  wires 
during  those  days,  bombarding  his  Prussian  relative 
with  reams  of  advice,  and  flourishing  his  sword  before 
the  eyes  of  Europe.  Like  the  Crown  Prince,  he  sent 
to  his  wife  regular  accounts  of  what  happened,  and 
after  the  battle  of  Worth  he  wrote  in  this  delightful 
style — 

"  I    am    able    to    begin    with    the    joyful    words, 


THE   BELOVED    GERMANY          143 

'  another  bloody  battle/  as  the  telegraph  has  informed 
you,  brilliant  and  victorious." 

Emperor  William  sent  the  like  news  to  his  empress, 
in  words  which  Punch  scarcely  altered  in  the  lines — 

"  My  dear  Augusta, 

We've  had  a  buster. 
Laid  ten  thousand  Frenchmen  low  ! 
Thank  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow  !  " 

As  far  as  Napoleon  was  concerned  the  war  was 
quickly  over;  hardly  a  month  from  the  beginning 
Sedan  was  fought  and  he  surrendered.  Then  came 
the  German  advance  upon  Paris,  and  the  three  months' 
struggle  between  Bismarck  and  the  royal  family.  The 
Crown  Princess  was  reported  to  have  struck  the  table 
while  talking  of  it  and  saying — 

"  For  all  that,  Paris  shall  not  be  bombarded." 

She  was  wrong,  Bismarck  prevailed,  and  the  siege 
began  on  December  27  amid  heavy  snow  and  severe 
cold. 

Then  the  royal  ladies  concentrated  their  energies 
upon  succouring  the  Parisians  when  the  moment  of 
capitulation  arrived,  a  mistaken  generosity,  which  but 
prolonged  the  suffering.  They  persuaded  William  to 
allow  them  to  pass  trains,  packed  with  provisions,  as 
near  Paris  as  possible,  ready  to  be  taken  into  the 
city  as  soon  as  the  siege  was  raised.  Queen  Victoria 
sent  enormous  quantities  of  food,  but  she  would  have 
been  wiser  to  have  tried  to  stop  the  war  at  the  begin- 
ning, or  at  the  end  to  have  protested  against  the 
criminal  fine  exacted  by  Prussia  from  France.  These 
food  trains  rested  in  the  lines  of  the  German  soldiers, 


144     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

who  themselves  had  not  enough  to  eat;  and  when 
the  gates  of  Paris  were  opened,  there  was  no  way  of 
getting  them  there  because  of  broken  bridges  and 
destroyed  roads.  The  knowledge  that  it  was  coming 
had  made  the  Parisians  prolong  their  resistance  until 
the  last  moment,  so  that  then  the  mortality  was  fright- 
ful, five  thousand  a  week  dying  of  starvation,  a  great 
number  being  children  under  two  years  of  age,  and 
"  coffins  of  these  tiny  French  citizens  were  to  be  seen 
in  all  directions." 

It  is  a  statesman's  business  to  be  wise  before  and 
not  after  an  event,  and  there  was  little  statesmanship 
in  English  and  royal  action  concerning  this  war. 

Russia  had  not  been  idle.  She  had  issued  a  circular 
to  the  European  powers  declaring  that  she  would  no 
longer  recognize  the  prohibition  which  was  inserted 
in  the  treaty  of  Paris,  against  her  warships  entering 
the  Black  Sea.  This  condition  had  been  insisted 
upon  by  Palmerston  after  the  Crimean  War,  and  was 
regarded  with  disfavour  by  every  country  but  Eng- 
land; Palmerston  himself  not  believing  that  it  could 
be  enforced  for  more  than  ten  years,  but  it  had 
lasted  fifteen.  On  receipt  of  the  Russian  circular  Odo 
Russell  was  sent  to  the  Prussian  King  to  say  that 
unless  he  could  induce  the  Muscovite  to  withdraw  the 
circular,  England  would  go  to  war.  Bismarck  was 
utterly  surprised  at  a  belligerent  tone  from  England, 
and  seeing  that  it  was  meant  he  consented  to  use  his 

o 

influence,  protesting  that  the  whole  affair  was  a 
remarkable,  new  and  unexpected  event  to  him.  Yet 
in  his  reminiscences  we  find  him  boasting  of  his  share 


THE   BELOVED    GERMANY          145 

in  the  transaction.  "  But  for  us  they  (the  Russians) 
would  not  have  obtained  it  from  France  and  England." 

The  circular  was  withdrawn,  a  conference  was 
called,  and  Russia's  freedom  in  the  Black  Sea  was 
assured  by  pacific  means. 

In  spite  of  the  Queen's  love  for  Germany,  Bismarck 
was  too  strong  for  her,  and  when  the  war  was  over  she 
was,  next  to  the  Crown  Princess,  the  most  unpopular 
person  in  that  kingdom.  Indeed,  a  most  extraordinary 
wave  of  anger  against  England  swept  over  the  land, 
anger  which  had  its  root  in  jealousy  of  a  people  which 
could  see  neighbouring  countries  ravaged  by  war  and 
yet  sit  quietly  behind  their  cliffs  and  suffer  no  like 
damage. 

One  of  the  Queen's  strongest  qualities  was  that  of 
personal  sympathy,  and  when  Sedan  sealed  the  fate 
of  Napoleon  and  Eugenie,  the  latter  fled  to  England, 
being  received  by  Victoria,  who  had  always  loved  her, 
with  tears  for  her  plight.  Grant  Duff  said  of  Eugenie 
years  earlier,  "she  is  brave  and  would  show  well 
indeed  if  she  had  to  dare  anything  in  the  streets  of 
Paris."  That  chance  had  arrived  in  September  1870, 
when,  with  Madam  Le  Breton,  she  fled  through  the 
palace  and  galleries  of  the  Louvre,  and  sat  silently 
for  hours  hidden  in  the  dark  corner  of  a  conveyance 
in  the  Rue  de  Rivoli,  surrounded  by  the  rabble 
which  blocked  the  streets,  until  at  last  she  got  away. 
Reaching  a  station  outside  Paris,  she  had  again  to  wait 
for  a  train,  and  her  only  safety  from  detection  was  a 
newspaper  which  she  held  before  her  face  and  which 
saved  her  from  discovery  and  possible  death. 


146    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Once  in  England  she  went  to  Chislehurst,  where 
Mary  of  Teck,  one  of  her  first  callers,  found  her  sadly 
changed  and  wrinkled,  while  the  Duke  of  Cambridge 
thought  her  looking  sixty  and  very  low  and  subdued. 
It  was  of  her  that  some  one  later  said,  "  Her  face 
makes  me  think  of  Rudyard  Kipling's  story,  The  Gate 
of  a  Hundred  Sorrows" 

Napoleon,  a  prisoner  at  Wilhelmshohe  in  Cassel, 
was  trying  to  get  some  moderation  of  the  terms  of 
peace  by  suggesting  a  common  German-Franco  war 
against  England.  This  should  not  raise  surprise,  for 
he  had  nothing  for  which  to  thank  England.  It  was 
many  years  before  the  world  knew  of  this,  and  if 
Victoria  heard  of  it  at  the  time  from  Fritz,  she  did  not 
let  it  prevent  her  offering  an  asylum  to  the  dethroned 
emperor.  He  too  came  to  Chislehurst,  and  once  he 
again  met  the  English  queen,  she  succumbed  anew 
to  his  charm  of  manner,  and  remained  his  firm  friend 
until  his  death  in  January  1873;  at  which  event  she 
wept  publicly  and  showed  such  grief  that  her  people 
were  astonished. 


CHAPTER   X 

FOR    MONEY,    MONEY'S    WORTH 

"  Our  faithful  Commons,  'tis  a  story 
To  say  you're  Radical  or  Tory. 
You  vote  your  Queen  such  generous  doles, 
You  are  all  Liberal,  bless  your  souls." 

Contemporary  verse. 

"The  fact  is  there  are  too  many  of  us." — The  old  Duchess  of 
Gloucester. 

THAT  children  bring  sorrow  as  well  as  joy  is  a  trite 
saying  of  which  Queen  Victoria  experienced  the  truth. 
She  was  most  disappointed  in  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
whom  she  had  laboured  so  hard  to  develop  on  her 
own  lines,  only  to  find  him  resolutely  bent  on  running 
on  his  own.  Princess  Louise  did  not  marry  a  German 
Serene  Highness,  and  therefore  was  scarcely  satisfac- 
tory. Prince  Alfred  was  more  promising,  as  he  was 
showing  a  remarkable  carefulness  in  money  matters 
and  an  extensive  knowledge  of  stock-exchange  fluc- 
tuations which  must  have  pleased  her,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  he  gave  rise  to  many  facetious  paragraphs 
in  the  Press.  Prince  Arthur  was  much  beloved  and 
was  also  popular  with  the  public.  But  poor  Prince 
Leopold  appealed  most  to  his  mother's  heart,  and  was 
at  the  same  time  a  great  anxiety,  for  he  was  very 
delicate,  being  liable  to  fits  and  suffering  from 
external  haemorrhage,  which  showed  an  abnormal 


148     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

thinness  of  the  skin.     Thus  he  was  always  liable  to 
take  illnesses,  such  as  typhoid,  sciatica,  etc. 

The  Prince  of  Wales,  however,  tried  her  most,  for 
his  name  was  before  the  public  in  a  scandalous  way. 
Yet  the  people  insisted  upon  liking  him  better  than 
all  the  rest,  and,  whatever  comments  they  might  pass 
upon  him,  the  whole  nation  was  agreed  in  lauding  his 
princess.  These  two  did  their  utmost  to  make  up  for 
the  social  deficiencies  of  the  Queen.  They  held  levees 
and  drawing-rooms,  laid  foundation-stones,  dedicated 
wards,  named  ships,  visited  hospitals,  opened  bridges, 
and  occasionally  did  work  still  more  domestic,  for  there 
was  no  limit  to  the  demands  of  charitable  and  public 
companies.  Thus  in  1865  the  Prince  had  to  start  the 
engine  which  for  the  first  time  delivered  the  contents 
of  the  Southern  Main  Drainage  Works  into  the 
Thames;  a  complimentary  loyalty  somewhat  similar 
to  that  which  named  one  of  the  London  sewers  near 
Buckingham  Palace  the  Victoria  Sewer.  It  was  in 
June  1872  that  the  Prince  and  Princess  opened  the 
Bethnal  Green  Museum,  and  found  among  the  mottoes 
displayed  along  the  route  some  with  these  kindly 
messages  :  "  Long  wished  for,  come  at  last."  "  Come 
again  and  bring  your  mother  with  you !  "  '  Thank 
you  for  your  kind  visit." 

For  years  the  papers  gave  such  constant  paragraphs 
to  this  young  couple's  good  deeds  that  people  began 
to  realize  that  they  were  very  hard  at  work.  Most  of 
this  work,  however,  was  attended  by  a  sameness  which 
eventually  brought  dullness  with  it,  and  needed  an 
antidote  one  way  or  another.  The  Princess  found  it 


FOR  MONEY,  MONEY'S  WORTH    149 

in  bearing  a  succession  of  children ;  the  Prince,  devoid 
of  such  resource,  became  epris  with  the  bright  eyes 
of  one  lady  after  another.  This  was  scarcely  astonish- 
ing, seeing  the  stock  from  which  he  sprung;  it  would, 
in  fact,  have  been  unreasonable  not  to  expect  some- 
where in  the  Queen's  family  a  throwback  to  an  earlier 
generation.  But  what  a  prince  does  cannot  be  hidden ; 
so  while,  on  the  one  hand,  a  cartoon  was  issued  show- 
ing Alexandra  as  Joan  of  Arc  before  the  throne, 
carrying  the  sword  of  popularity  and  the  banner  of 
self-sacrifice,  trampling  the  while  on  the  Fenian  flag 
and  the  rod  of  discontent,  the  Prince  in  another  was 
drawn  running  after  the  shade  of  George  IV. 

In  1867  the  Court  Circular  announced  that  Alex- 
andra had  given  birth  to  "a  princess,"  which  gave 
occasion  for  good-humoured  scoffing,  it  being  pointed 
out  how  interesting  would  be  the  then  first  columns 
of  the  newspapers  if  every  titled  person  made  such 
announcements  as  "  Lady  So-and-so  of  a  baronet " 
or  "of  an  honourable,"  etc.  This  birth  took  place 
during  a  painful  illness  of  acute  rheumatism,  the 
disease  becoming  eventually  localized  in  the  knee. 
The  Princess's  condition  caused  so  much  anxiety  that 
the  Queen  went  several  times  quietly  up  to  London 
to  see  her,  which  was  in  itself  an  event.  In  September, 
when  Alexandra  went  to  Hesse-Darmstadt  to  meet  her 
nation's  enemy,  King  William  of  Prussia,  the  knee, 
having  been  treated,  in  the  manner  of  those  times,  by 
splints,  bandages  and  lying-up,  was  rigid,  and  she 
walked  with  two  sticks. 

Of  the  meeting   Princess  Alice  said  :    "  Alix  was 


150    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

pleased  with  the  civility  and  kindness  of  the  King." 
It  is  an  amusing  trait  with  the  Prussian  'kulturist' 
that  when  he  has  successfully  robbed  a  nation,  he 
declares  that  he  has  done  it  for  that  nation's  good 
and  does  his  best  to  make  it  believe  it  and  'kiss  and 
be  friends.' ' 

Albert  Edward  had  some  accidents  during  these 
years  which  perhaps  added  to  the  excitement  of  his 
existence,  being  spun  off  his  horse  by  a  heavily 
antlered  stag  when  shooting  in  Germany,  but  without 
receiving  injury;  later  in  Rotten  Row  a  runaway  steed 
cannoned  into  him,  sending  his  horse  down  like  a 
rabbit  struck  with  shot  and  apparently  rolling  over  his 
rider,  the  intruder  jumping  clear  over  both.  But  again 
he  was  not  hurt,  and  remounted  and  rode  away  before 
much  of  a  crowd  could  gather.  A  volunteer  was 
arrested  for  threatening  to  shoot  the  Prince,  and 
carrying  on  parade  ball  cartridges  in  his  pocket  for 
that  purpose.  Thus  when  Albert  Edward  was  in 
Russia  and  a  report  was  sent  to  his  wife  that  he  had 
been  killed  there,  she  at  once  believed  it.  It  was, 
however,  false,  though  other  dangers  to  which  he  laid 
himself  open  were  true  enough. 

These  were  the  dangers  of  gossip,  scandal  and 
fierce  anger  in  various  circles,  which  all  culminated 
in  1871,  when  not  only  was  his  name  publicly  used 
in  what  was  known  as  the  Mordaunt  Divorce  Case, 
but  he  himself  was  called  as  a  witness. 

Sir  Charles  Mordaunt  wanted  a  divorce  from  his 
wife,  she  having  owned  to  him  that  "  she  had  done 
very  wrong"  with  several  people,  among  them  being 


FOR  MONEY,  MONEY'S  WORTH     151 

the  Prince  of  Wales.  What  would  have  been  divulged 
had  the  case  taken  its  normal  course  it  is  not  easy  to 
say,  but  the  onus  of  embroiling  the  Prince  was  too 
much  for  all  but  the  defendant's  counsel.  So  the 
convenient  question  was  raised  as  to  whether  Lady 
Mordaunt  was  sound  enough  mentally  to  plead  a 
defence,  and  upon  this  point  the  trial  took  place.  Sir 
Charles's  counsel  indignantly  repudiated  the  assertion 
that  he  had  subpoenaed  the  Prince,  whereupon  counsel 
on  the  opposite  side  subpoenaed  him.  Part  of  Sir 
Charles's  examination  ran — 

"  I  believe  you  had  no  personal  acquaintance  with 
his  Royal  Highness?" 

"  I  can't  say  that  I  knew  him  well.  I  had  a  slight 
acquaintance  and  had  spoken  to  him,  but  he  was  not 
a  friend  of  mine." 

"  Did  he  ever  come  to  your  house  upon  any  invita- 
tion of  yours?" 

"  Never." 

"  Did  you  ever  have  any  conversation  with  your 
wife  about  him? " 

"  I  did.  I  warned  her  against  continuing  her 
acquaintance  with  him." 

He  further  said  that  he  knew  nothing  of  frequent 
visits  paid  by  the  Prince,  and  did  not  know  that  his 
wife  had  received  letters. 

However,  eleven  letters  were  brought  into  Court, 
and  on  February  23  the  Prince  himself  was  called. 
His  share  in  the  trial  was  small,  however,  the  last 
question  asked  him  being — 

"  Has  there  ever  been  any  improper  familiarity  or 


152    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

criminal  act  between  you  and  Lady  Mordaunt  ?  "    To 
which  he  answered — 

'  There  has  not."  Applause  followed  this,  but  was 
instantly  checked,  and  the  Daily  Telegraph  com- 
mented, "  The  words,  though  given  without  special 
emphasis,  carry  along  with  them  an  earnest  of  their 
honest  truthfulness." 

Lady  Mordaunt  was  pronounced  insane,  and  Sir 
Charles  was  left  to  bring  up  as  his  heir  a  boy  who, 
though  bearing  his  name,  was  not  his  son. 

Six  weeks  later  there  was  another  scandal,  an 
application  for  a  criminal  information  against  the 
proprietors  of  the  Sheffield  Daily  Telegraph  being 
made.  This  paper  had  published  "A  Startling 
Rumour"  to  the  effect  that  the  Prince  was  likely  to 
appear  again  in  the  Divorce  Court,  this  time  as  a 
co-respondent.  The  case  came  before  the  Queen's 
Bench  six  months  afterwards,  and  a  fine  of  £50  was 
imposed,  it  having  been  shown  that  part  of  the  para- 
graph had  been  lifted  from  the  Echo  and  the  names 
which  had  been  added  had  been  secured  from  an 
usher  of  the  Divorce  Court.  The  people  implicated 
by  the  paragraph  all  swore  that  it  was  entirely  without 
truth. 

Thus  for  ten  months  the  name  of  the  future  ruler 
of  England  was  dragged  in  the  mud,  and  the  distress 
and  anger  of  the  Queen  were  very  deep,  for  the 
scandals  struck  a  blow  at  her  most  cherished  ideal 
for  her  children. 

All  in  all  the  spring  of  1871  was  perhaps  the  most 
wretched  of  the  Queen's  widowhood,  for  there  seemed 


FOR   MONEY,  MONEY'S  WORTH     158 

to  be  no  form  of  public  annoyance  to  which  she 
was  not  exposed.  That  it  was  to  a  great  extent  her 
own  fault  did  not,  and,  from  her  supreme  belief  in 
the  inviolability  of  her  position,  could  not,  occur  to 
her.  She  blamed  her  Government  and  her  people 
alone,  and  so  found  further  reason  for  ignoring 
England  and  expanding  the  warmth  of  her  affections 
over  Scotland.  Had  she  not  alienated  the  great  mass 
of  the  public  there  might  have  been  discussion  over 
her  new  demands  for  dowries  and  incomes,  but  there 
would  not  have  been  the  general  excitement  that  was 
shown. 

The  marriage  of  Princess  Louise  was  the  first  centre 
of  attack,  and  then  came  the  majority  of  Prince 
Arthur. 

Louise  was  pretty  and  gay,  desiring  the  admiration 
of  her  kind,  and,  like  other  girls,  she  flirted  with  any 
charming  man  in  her  proximity,  which  for  a  queen's 
daughter  was  perhaps  not  "quite  discreet."  The 
papers  announced  once  that  she  was  to  marry  a  bishop, 
and  it  was  a  matter  of  open  comment  that  she  was 
much  inclined  to  a  "  handsome,  brilliant  divine," 
Canon  Ainger.  On  the  other  hand,  she  was  never 
accused  of  any  partiality  for  impecunious  German 
princelings,  her  last  flirtation  being  with  the  Marquis 
of  Lome,  whom  the  Queen  said  she  remembered  in 
his  babyhood  as  "  a  dear,  white,  fat,  fair  little  fellow 
with  reddish  hair." 

Whatever  her  Majesty's  private  feeling  about  this 
marriage,  she  said  no  word  publicly  against  it,  and  it 
may  well  be  believed  that  if  a  Briton  were  to  be 


154     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

chosen,  she  would  prefer  a  Scot  to  any  other.  The 
Prince  of  Wales  was  strongly  against  it,  but  then  he 
was  not  in  the  habit  of  approving  of  his  brothers-in- 
law,  his  disregard  for  the  Crown  Prince  being  a  matter 
of  comment  in  Germany.  When  "Fritz"  and  his 
wife  came  to  London  in  1871  it  was  remarked  in 
Germany  that  "  they  made  a  great  impression,  Society 
and  the  Press  recognizing  his  importance,"  and  "the 
Prince  of  Wales  and  his  Princess  were  themselves 
more  civil  this  time,  and  even  put  in  an  appearance 
at  the  German  legation." 

In  spite  of  all  remonstrance  Victoria  gave  her  sanc- 
tion to  the  marriage — all  that  was  needed  to  make  the 
Royal  Marriage  Act  a  dead  letter — and  the  wedding 
was  fixed  for  March  1871,  during  Lent. 

Society,  instead  of  upholding  its  own  order,  followed 
the  example  of  Albert  Edward,  but  then  it  always 
follows  the  bell-wether  on  the  sheep  track  and  does 
little  thinking  on  its  own  account.  The  people  were 
considerative  at  first,  for  if  an  income  were  granted  the 
Princess,  they  hoped  it  would  be  spent  in  the  British 
Isles,  perhaps  even  in  London. 

As  money  was  wanted  once  again,  Victoria  once 
again  screwed  up  her  courage  to  face  her  loyal  Par- 
liament, and  in  February  drove  quickly  through  the 
streets  to  the  peers'  entrance  of  the  House  of  Lords 
to  declare  Parliament  open.  She  was  received  with 
little  enthusiasm,  for  the  people  knew  now  that  she 
was  only  ready  to  humour  them  when  she  wanted 
something,  and  they  resented  it.  When  she  entered 
the  throne-room  it  was  seen  that  some  modification 


FOR   MONEY,  MONEY'S  WORTH     155 

had  been  made  in  the  sombreness  of  her  dress.  The 
material  was  less  heavy,  and  a  small  diamond  crown 
was  worn  above  her  widow's  cap.  She  also  was  pre- 
ceded by  Lord  Granville  carrying  the  sword  of  state, 
the  Marquis  of  Winchester  with  the  cap  of  main- 
tenance, and  Lord  Bessborough  with  the  crown.  For 
a  brief  moment  the  assembled  multitude  hoped  that 
she  would  herself  read  the  speech.  But  no;  the  Lord 
Chancellor  accomplished  the  task,  while  his  royal 
mistress  sat  with  downcast  eyes  on  the  throne,  the 
robes  of  state  being  loosely  cast  around  her. 

With  the  meeting  of  Parliament  the  most  extra- 
ordinary discussion  on  royalty  began.  To  a  student 
of  events  it  was  not  astonishing  that  the  spirit  of 
revolution  was  still  strong.  France  had  declared  a 
republic,  and  for  more  than  seventy  years  France  had 
greatly  influenced  England.  Now  high  and  low  alike 
were  asking  why  something  like  a  million  pounds  of 
public  money  should  go  to  keep  up  a  Monarchy  and 
a  Court  which  for  two-thirds  of  the  year  lived  at  the 
two  extremes  of  the  kingdom  and  for  the  other  third, 
though  within  reach  of  London,  steadily  refused  to 
appear  there.  Though  public  suspicion  and  criticism 
were  as  keen  now  as  before,  it  had  become  somewhat 
muzzled,  for  Gladstone  stood  as  a  buffer  between 
royalty  and  the  people ;  and,  much  as  Victoria  disliked 
him,  he  was  her  strongest  protector,  his  policy  of 
domestic  reform  alone  being  a  safeguard  to  her.  The 
feeling  among  the  workmen  that  at  last  a  friend  was 
at  the  helm  of  State,  that  at  last  their  dire  needs  were 
to  receive  consideration,  had  by  1870  reduced  the 


156    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

tendency  to  violent  speech.  But  now  it  all  broke 
forth  again. 

After  the  official  announcement  of  Louise's  engage- 
ment meetings  were  held  in  many  large  towns  to 
protest  against  the  money  grant  that  every  one  knew 
would  be  demanded.  At  Nottingham  it  was  con- 
demned and  the  crowd  separated  shouting  for  a 
republic.  Birmingham  would  not  give  a  hearing  to 
the  two  members  who  spoke  in  its  favour,  and  a 
deputation  was  sent  to  them  demanding  that  they 
should  oppose  it  in  the  House.  At  Wellington  Music 
Hall,  Holborn,  a  packed  meeting  passed  with  acclama- 
tion a  resolution  that  the  time  had  come  to  "  demand 
the  withdrawal  of  all  annuities  now  paid  out  of  the 
taxes  to  German  princes,  and  also  that  no  further 
endowments  be  made  to  any  of  the  royal  family." 
Brighton  demanded  the  opposition  of  its  member, 
Professor  Fawcett,  and  other  towns  too  numerous  to 
mention  followed  suit. 

The  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  in  a  remarkably  outspoken 
leader,  declared  that  to  be  a  worthy  representative  at 
the  head  of  the  State  was  a  difficult  part,  "  and  yet  a 
ruler  of  real  intellect  and  force  of  character  might 
produce  incalculable  effect  upon  the  country."  It  rang 
the  note  of  warning  against  indifference  and  neglect, 
adding,  "  Nine  men  in  ten  would  preserve  the 
monarchy,  but  not  one  in  ten  would  express  warm 
personal  devotion  to  it.  Thus  if  vehement  political 
agitation  arise,  those  institutions  which  have  ceased 
to  cause  lively  enthusiasm  may  go  to  the  wall  more 
quickly  than  any  one  expects." 


FOR  MONEY,  MONEY'S  WORTH     157 

When  Gladstone  proposed  the  usual  grants  many 
petitions  were  laid  on  the  table  against  them,  Professor 
Fawcett,  Mr.  Peter  Taylor  and  Sir  Robert  Peel  speak- 
ing as  opposers.  The  last-named  questioned  the  use 
to  which  Victoria  put  the  money  granted  by  the  nation 
to  support  the  dignity  and  representation  of  the 
Crown  :  "  When  foreign  sovereigns  come  to  England 
it  is  painful  to  Englishmen  to  find  the  enormous 
income  is  not  devoted  in  the  way  contemplated  by 
Parliament.  ...  I  would  double  the  income  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales.  He  lives  among  us  and  does  that 
for  which  £385,000  is  voted  to  the  Crown."  He  added 
that  when  a  princess  lays  aside  royalty  she  should 
accept  other  conditions,  and  her  Majesty  should  be 
left  to  make  provision  for  her. 

The  same  note  was  struck  in  the  Upper  House  by 
Lord  Oranmore  and  others,  yet  in  both  Houses  every 
one  knew  that  the  grants  were  assured,  so  when  it 
came  to  a  division  the  protestors,  knowing  themselves 
in  a  minority,  stayed  away.  Two  objectors,  Peter 
Taylor  and  Auberon  Herbert,  were  tellers  in  the 
division,  and  Professor  Fawcett  walked  in  stately 
solitude  into  the  "No"  lobby,  provoking  peals  of 
laughter.  This  result  gave  the  historians  the  chance 
of  ignoring  the  whole  agitation  and  enlarging  upon 
the  great  satisfaction  felt  by  the  House  and  the  country 
over  the  match. 

The  Queen  held  personally  two  Courts  at  Bucking- 
ham Palace  in  February,  thus  necessitating  only  one 
night's  stay  in  the  capital,  which  was  felt  to  be  but  a 
poor  return  to  her  hungry  and  generous  Londoners. 


158     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

There  was  trouble  over  the  date  of  the  wedding. 
Instead  of  going  abroad,  Victoria  chose  to  spend  April 
at  Osborne,  leaving  Windsor  on  the  5th;  the  earlier 
part  of  May  was  absorbed  by  glad  anticipations  of 
Balmoral ;  the  latter  part  of  that  month  and  the  greater 
part  of  June  was  passed  in  Scotland;  therefore  the 
only  time  left  was  March.  So,  though  she  was  the 
head  of  the  Church,  she  chose  a  date  in  Lent,  much 
to  the  horror  of  those  subjects  who  regarded  that 
period  as  a  time  for  soberness.  Agitations  were  set 
afoot  to  get  the  day  altered,  and  to  petition  the  Arch- 
bishop to  declare  it  lawful  for  the  clergy  to  dispense 
for  the  day  with  the  Church's  ordinary  rule,  and  there 
was  an  attempt  to  institute  in  London  High  Churches 
a  special  penitential  service  at  the  hour  of  the 
wedding. 

Victoria  was  quite  unmoved,  and  the  marriage  took 
place  at  St.  George's  Chapel,  the  Queen  taking  a 
prominent  part  in  it  by  walking  up  the  aisle  with  the 
bride,  perhaps  that  she  might  publicly  show  her 
sanction.  The  Duke  of  Argyll  was  in  full  Campbell 
apparel — kilt,  philibeg,  sporran,  claymore  and  scarf- 
while  the  Marquis  and  his  two  supporters  were  in 
Volunteer  Artillery  uniform.  Every  one  was  there, 
even  the  Gladstones,  in  their  very  best  clothes;  and 
the  Daily  Telegraph,  reporting  the  gorgeousness  of  it 
all,  added  that  the  heralds  who  were  busy  about  the 
discharge  of  their  duties  looked  like  "  enormous  human 
remains  from  some  strange  island  where  the  missing 
link  is  to  be  found  between  man  and  birds." 

When  the  newly  wedded  drove  away  rice  and  satin 


FOR  MONEY,  MONEY'S  WORTH     159 

shoes  were  thrown  after  them,  also  a  new  broom  which 
the  muscular  arm  of  John  Brown  sent  slithering  on  to 
the  stones.  Being  a  Scotch  marriage,  he  was  surely 
privileged.  Scotch  sentiment  on  the  event  was  amus- 
ingly expressed  by  the  Campbell  crofter  who  said  that 
the  Queen  must  be  a  proud  woman  that  day  because 
she  was  marrying  her  daughter  to  the  son  of  the  great 
Duke  of  Argyll. 

In  July,  when  a  grant  was  asked  for  Prince  Arthur, 
the  whole  monetary  discussion  was  again  raised,  and 
even  more  bitterly.  A  demonstration  in  Trafalgar 
Square  was  attended  by  the  largest  crowd  that  had 
ever  met  there,  reaching  from  the  steps  of  St.  Martin's 
Church  to  the  barracks  which  then  stood  at  the  west 
side,  to  listen  to  Bradlaugh  protesting,  in  the  name  of 
the  men  of  Lancashire,  Yorkshire  and  other  counties, 
against  "  princely  paupers  "  taking  the  people's  money, 
some  one  else  saying  that  such  grants  tended  to 
encourage  idleness  and  the  evils  which  sprang  from 
it.  At  the  same  time  in  the  House,  every  approach 
to  which  was  closely  guarded  by  police,  half  a  dozen 
members  protested  against  the  grant,  and  though  the 
motion  was  passed  with  an  overwhelming  majority, 
there  remained  "  an  uneasy  feeling  that  the  prolonged 
eclipse  of  the  splendour  of  royalty  had  effectually 
damaged  the  popularity,  not  only  of  the  Queen,  but 
of  the  Crown." 

The  Queen  herself,  fortified  by  her  usual  attitude, 
could  see  no  danger  in  the  universal  discontent  and 
no  justice  in  the  appeal  of  her  people ;  she  saw  nothing 
but  a  wicked  persecution  of  herself,  and  blamed  her 


160    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

ministers  for  not  putting  it  down  with  a  high  hand, 
for  not  eloquently  and  publicly  proclaiming  that  all 
that  she  did  was  right. 

Disraeli  might  have  found  some  means  of  diverting 
public  attention,  he  would  certainly  have  softly  sympa- 
thized with  his  sovereign;  but  the  strenuous  Glad- 
stone, who  defended  her  strongly  both  in  and  out  of 
the  House,  showed  her  that  he  wanted  her  to  help  in 
safeguarding  herself.  He  begged  her  to  conform  to 
the  demands  of  her  position,  to  open  Parliament,  to 
delay  a  journey  to  Balmoral  for  the  public  good,  or 
to  carry  out  some  other  royal  function ;  and  this  made 
her  angry.  She  accused  him  of  being  inimical  to  her, 
of  not  recognizing  the  weight  of  work  which  hung  over 
her,  and  she  made  the  absurd  charge  that  he  was  trying 
to  force  her  to  do  work  which  was  not  so  much  hers 
as  his.  Her  feeling  for  him  became  actively  resentful, 
and,  to  quote  from  the  article  in  the  Quarterly 
Review — 

'  The  surface  of  her  mind  had  received  an  impres- 
sion unfavourable  to  the  approach  of  that  particular 
minister,  and  nothing  could  ever  in  future  make  her 
really  pleased  to  welcome  him." 

Disraeli  had  little  sympathy  with  representative 
government  or  the  English  Constitution,  and  he  made 
matters  worse  in  a  speech  at  Hughenden  when  he  said 
that  the  Queen's  duties  were  multifarious,  weighty 
and  unceasing,  that  she  read  every  dispatch  received 
or  sent;  adding,  "The  whole  internal  administration 
of  the  country  greatly  depends  on  the  sign  manual ; 
and  of  our  present  Sovereign  it  may  be  said  that  her 


FOR   MONEY,  MONEY'S  WORTH     161 

signature  has  never  been  placed  to  any  public  docu- 
ment of  which  she  did  not  know  the  purport  and  of 
which  she  did  not  approve" 

Seeing  how  very  conservative  Victoria  had  become, 
this  declaration  raised  wide  indignation,  for  it  de- 
scribed personal  government,  autocracy.  Indeed,  the 
reiteration  of  the  assertion  that  the  Queen  was  un- 
ceasingly at  work  on  State  affairs  and  had  no  time 
for  mere  functions  was  breeding  an  angry  suspicion 
that  there  was  more  to  be  feared  than  desired  in  her 
activity. 

Upon  her  the  painful  events  of  the  first  half  of  1871 
had  a  not  unusual  effect.  She  fell  ill  with  neuralgia 
and  rheumatic  gout,  which  she  attributed  to  worry. 
The  news  of  the  illness  at  once  caused  a  modification 
of  public  comment;  people  began  to  think  they  had 
been  hard  upon  her,  and  they  atoned  by  showing 
sympathy  and  concern;  and  though  this  pleased  her 
Majesty,  she  put  it  down  to  remorse  for  the  cruel  way 
in  which  the  nation  had  treated  her,  saying  "  that  she 
thought  it  very  hard  that  it  was  necessary  to  have  this 
severe  illness  and  great  suffering  to  make  people  feel 
for  her  and  understand  her."  She  was  not  to  blame 
for  this  in  one  way :  it  was  the  result  of  the  rigidity 
of  her  nature;  as  has  been  said,  she  regarded  herself 
as  right,  and  nothing  could  shake  that  conviction. 

The  Queen  probably  suffered  from  what  is  now 
known  as  neuritis.  In  1869  she  had  "a  violent  attack 
of  neuralgia"  in  the  leg,  and  it  is  more  than  likely 
that  the  long,  wearing  lameness  which  afflicted  her 
in  1883  and  the  following  year  was  due  to  the  same 


M 


162     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

thing,  rather  than  to  an  accidental  tripping  on  the 
stairway. 

It  was  November  before  she  could  walk  up  and 
down  stairs  again,  just  about  the  time  when  discontent 
broke  out  afresh,  started  by  Sir  Charles  Dilke  in  a 
speech  at  Newcastle-on-Tyne.  His  subject  was  the 
Civil  List  and  the  sums  voted  to  the  Crown,  such  as 
£131,000  in  yearly  annuities  to  daughters,  sons  and 
relatives,  £7000  for  steam  packets  to  take  visitors  to 
and  from  Osborne,  and  for  insignia  and  presents  when 
a  royal  prince  went  abroad,  £20,000  in  military  and 
naval  pay  to  members  of  the  royal  family,  £100,000 
for  the  yearly  upkeep  of  the  royal  yachts,  and  other 
sums,  bringing  the  total  to  £1,000,000  of  public 
money.  Concerning  the  yachts,  Sir  Charles  added, 
"As  an  instance  of  the  decorative  character  of  these 
yachts  I  may  say  that  I  found  an  able-bodied  seaman 
who  was  maintained  all  the  year  round  to  paint 
the  lion  and  the  unicorn  on  the  five  brackets.  He 
commented  upon  the  freedom  of  these  annuities  from 
all  taxes,  and  of  the  Queen  from  income  tax.  From 
this  he  discussed  the  sinecures  in  the  Household, 
declaring  that  among  the  officials  retained  were 
twenty-one  doctors,  dentists  and  chemists,  a  litho- 
grapher-in-ordinary,  an  historical  painter  to  the  Queen, 
a  portrait  painter  to  the  Queen,  the  Lord  High 
Almoner,  Sub-Almoner,  Hereditary  Grand  Almoner, 
Clerk  of  the  Check,  Clerk  of  the  Closet,  Master  of 
the  Buckhounds,  Exons-in-waiting  and  Hereditary 
Grand  Falconer. 

The  real  brunt  of  his  attack  lay  in  the  question : 


FOR   MONEY,  MONEY'S  WORTH     163 

"  Now  that  no  Court  is  kept  £100,000  is  saved  on 
tradesmen's  bills,  and  where  does  that  money  go? 
Has  it  not  been  diverted  from  its  just  use  into  the 
pocket  of  the  Queen  ? "  The  speech  concluded  with — 

"  Show  me  a  fair  chance  that  a  Republic  will  be 
free  from  the  political  corruption  that  hangs  about  the 
Monarchy,  and  I  will  say,  '  Let  it  come  !  ' 

The  public  was  so  inured,  and  in  a  great  respect 
so  sympathetic,  to  these  attacks  on  the  woman  who 
flouted  it  that  the  speech  raised  little  surprise  or 
horror,  and  comment  upon  it  would  have  been  kept 
alive,  but  that  across  the  strained  feeling  fell  a  mis- 
fortune which,  though  quite  extraneous  to  the  trouble, 
diverted  every  one's  attention. 

The  Prince  of  Wales,  temporarily  unpopular  and 
in  social  disgrace,  fell  ill.  He  had  been  staying  at 
Londesborough  Lodge,  Scarborough,  and  after  his 
return  to  Sandringham  developed  the  complaint  of 
which  his  father  died,  typhoid  fever.  At  the  time 
there  were  many  stories  of  domestic  estrangement  in 
the  princely  home,  but  the  next  three  months  healed 
these,  made  people  forget  the  Queen's  shortcomings, 
and  reinstated  royalty  once  more  in  its  high  position. 

Alexandra,  Helena  and  Alice  became  Albert 
Edward's  devoted  nurses,  but  his  death  was  expected 
daily.  On  December  i  he  recovered  consciousness 
for  a  short  time,  and,  hearing  the  date,  murmured,  "  It 
is  Alexandra's  birthday."  A  relapse  followed  this 
moment  of  hope,  and  a  member  of  the  household 
wrote  that  the  end  was  not  far  distant.  The  Queen 
went  down  to  Sandringham  for  the  second  time,  her 


164     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

face  wet  with  tears  as  she  left  Windsor;  and  she 
stayed  there  eleven  days,  dreading  that  terrible  I4th, 
not  daring  to  hope  that  it  would  not  again  bring  death 
to  her  family.  But  to  her  joy  on  that  very  day  the 
first  sign  of  improvement  took  place,  and  she  left 
Norfolk  on  the  iQth  consoled  and  hopeful,  paying 
a  high  tribute  to  the  doctors  and  royal  nurses  when 
she  said — 

"  Had  my  Prince  had  the  same  treatment  he  might 
not  have  died." 

There  was  a  great  discussion  as  to  how  the  disease 
had  been  contracted,  for  Lord  Chesterfield,  who  was 
at  Londesborough  Lodge  at  the  same  time,  also  took 
typhoid  and  died.  On  the  other  hand,  Blegg,  the 
Prince's  groom,  who  had  not  left  Sandringham,  suc- 
cumbed to  typhoid  on  December  18.  Expert  examina- 
tion showed  that  while  the  drainage  of  Sandringham 
was  passable,  its  water  supply  was  flavoured  by  cess- 
pools, and  the  disease  was  rampant  at  a  village  near 
the  Prince's  house.  Londesborough  Lodge  was  con- 
demned without  extenuation  as  "  a  vessel  inverted 
over  the  mouth  of  a  drain-pipe,"  so  judgment  had  to 
be  withheld. 

At  the  end  of  February  1872  a  thanksgiving  service 
was  held  at  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  to  which  the  Queen 
went  in  semi-state,  changing  her  mourning  crepe  for 
velvet  and  ermine.  London  people,  diverted  from 
their  grumbling  by  sympathy  with  a  great  trouble, 
made  a  gala  day  of  the  event.  They  hung  their 
banners  and  carpets  over  their  house-fronts,  smothered 
the  window-frames  with  flowers,  and  made  much 


FOR  MONEY,  MONEY'S  WORTH     165 

money  by  letting  those  windows  to  cousins  from  the 
country.  Some  enthusiasts  also  spent  enough  to  turn 
three  hundred  yards  of  the  Strand  into  a  perfumed 
pathway,  strewn  with  violets. 

Victoria  was  so  happy  that  she  had  lost  her  self- 
consciousness  and  desire  to  hide,  and  she  forgot  to 
be  mean  over  trifles  of  procedure.  So  the  Lord  Mayor 
shut  the  gates  of  Temple  Bar  in  her  face,  that  he,  as 
King  of  the  City,  might  command  them  to  be  opened 
for  his  Sovereign  in  the  ancient  fashion;  and  the 
people  cheered  frantically  at  this  evidence  of  good 
feeling.  Somewhere  along  the  route  a  travelling 
circus  got  mixed  up  with  the  generals'  staff  and  could 
not  be  disengaged,  at  which  the  crowd  went  wild  with 
delight,  and,  temporarily,  loved  their  Queen  and 
Prince  with  a  boundless  love. 

In  contrast  to  this  gay,  careless  crowd,  away  in 
some  dark  corner  sat  a  sour,  disappointed  residuum 
of  Revolutionaries,  the  committee  of  which  wrote  that 
day — the  letter  getting  into  the  hands  of  the  police — 

'  These  English  are  a  nation  of  fools ;  they  were 
all  mad  this  morning  and  they  will  all  be  drunk 
to-night — but  the  Revolution  is  adjourned  for  fifty 
years." 

Yet  republicanism  was  still  much  alive,  and  there 
were  those  who  felt  that  though  the  Prince's  illness 
was  a  cast  of  the  dice  in  the  Queen's  favour,  it  was 
not  at  all  the  same  thing  as  a  personal  attempt  on  her 
part  to  obtain  her  people's  affection,  and  many  would 
have  echoed  the  words  of  J.  R.  Green,  had  they 
known  them — 


166    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

"  I  am  sorry  when  any  young  fellow  dies  at  thirty, 
and  am  far  more  sorry  when  any  mother  surfers;  but 
the  sentiment  of  newspapers  and  town  councils  over 
'telegrams  from  the  sick-bed*  is  simply  ludicrous. 
However,  one  remembers  that  all  France  went  mad 
with  anxiety  when  Lewis  the  Well-beloved  fell  sick 
in  his  earlier  days,  and  yet  somehow  or  other  '89  came 
never  the  later."  * 

The  Queen,  however,  felt  very  comforted  by  her 
people's  enthusiasm,  and  she  wrote  a  letter  to  them, 
saying  that  their  loyalty  and  sympathy  had  "  made  a 
deep  and  lasting  impression  upon  her  heart  which 
could  never  be  effaced  " — a  statement  which  they  had 
opportunities  of  testing. 

The  day  after  the  thanksgiving  an  incident  hap- 
pened which  increased  the  general  loyal  feeling.  As 
the  Queen  was  driving  into  Buckingham  Palace  yard, 
a  half-witted  youth  of  sixteen,  named  O'Connor,  pre- 
sented a  pistol  at  her  over  the  side  of  the  carriage 
with  one  hand  and  held  out  a  paper  with  the  other. 
The  evidence  given  at  Bow  Street  on  March  i  was 
somewhat  conflicting.  John  Brown  said,  '  The 
prisoner  ran  round  the  back  of  the  carriage  to  the 
side  where  the  Queen  was  sitting  and  raised  his  hand. 
He  placed  his  hand  upon  the  carriage  and  I  seized 
him  by  the  neck.  ...  I  kept  the  boy  in  custody  until 
the  police  arrived." 

General  Harding,  one  of  the  two  equerries,  said, 
"  I  saw  a  commotion  in  the  carriage  and  I  went  to 
the  off  side.  The  prisoner  had  already  been  seized 

1  Letters  of  John  Richard  Green.      Edited  by  Leslie  Stephen. 


FOR   MONEY,  MONEY'S  WORTH     167 

by  the  other  equerry  in  attendance."  The  constable's 
evidence  was,  "Afterwards  I  ran  into  the  enclosure 
and  received  the  prisoner  in  custody  from  Lord 
Charles  Fitzroy  (the  other  equerry)." 

However,  whether  Lord  Charles  Fitzroy  or  John 
Brown  caught  the  boy,  the  Queen  gave  all  the  credit 
to  the  latter,  and  regarded  him  as  a  hero.  Exagger- 
ated reports  as  to  the  danger  the  Queen  had  been  in 
caused  great  excitement,  but  Lord  Ronald  Gower,1 
who  went  to  the  police  station  out  of  curiosity,  saw 
only  a  harmless-looking  boy  and  an  old  flintlock  pistol 
which  had  not  carried  a  ball  for  many  a  year,  and  had 
neither  flint  nor  hammer.  The  paper  was  a  petition 
for  the  release  of  some  Fenian  prisoners. 

Victoria  made  such  a  fuss  over  John  Brown  and 
his  share  in  the  event  that  she  cooled  the  enthusiasm 
of  her  subjects,  who  then  became  inclined  to  laugh  the 
whole  thing  aside.  She  announced  that  she  had  long 
thought  of  rewarding  her  faithful  domestic  servants, 
and  began  by  presenting  the  Scotsman  with  a  gold 
medal  and  an  annuity  of  £25,  as  a  "  mark  of  apprecia- 
tion of  his  devotion  on  the  occasion  of  the  attack 
made  upon  her  Majesty." 

Other  awards  of  the  same  sort  do  not  appear  to 
have  been  made  public,  and  it  would  be  interesting 
to  know  if  any  other  good  servant  was  presented  with 
the  order  of  John  Brown. 

This  superior  man  grew  more  and  more  burdensome 
to  his  colleagues  and  gave  cause  for  much  gossip. 
Every  one  had  some  story  about  his  roughness  of 
1  Old  Diaries.  By  Lord  Ronald  Sutherland  Gower. 


168    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

speech  and  rude  manners.  A  man  who  for  long 
superintended  the  details  of  the  royal  journeys  to  the 
north  relates  that  on  passing  along  the  platform  one 
night  at  Wigan  he  was  surprised  to  find  John  Brown. 
On  inquiring  if  all  was  right,  he  was  further  surprised 
by  the  answer — 

"  No ;  the  Queen  says  the  carriage  is  shaking  like 
the  devil." 

Neele  adds :  :<  John  Brown's  coarse  phonograph 
had  thus  transmitted  her  Majesty's  gentle  complaint." 

He  tells  how  on  another  journey  the  Queen's  read- 
ing-lamp was  required,  and  for  some  cause  the  candles 
could  not  be  placed  in  the  sockets.  The  attendant 
tried  again  and  again  to  get  over  the  difficulty,  and 
at  last  said  it  must  wait  until  they  reached  Carlisle. 
John  Brown  would  not  hear  of  it,  and,  "as  I  fancy 
was  his  wont,  asserted  as  though  her  Majesty  had 
heard  the  suggestion,  '  The  Queen  says  the  train 
shanna  stir  a  fut  till  the  lamps  are  put  in.'  And  it 
had  to  be  done." 

It  was  John  Brown  who  broke  bad  news  to  her 
Majesty,  upon  whose  arm  she  leaned  if  feeling  pain 
in  her  leg,  who  went  with  her  in  her  walks,  drives, 
excursions,  visits,  who  stood  by  her  chair  and  scolded 
if  she  did  not  eat  enough  or  if  she  chose  from  a  dish 
which  he  thought  would  disagree  with  her.  "  Brown, 
who  superintends  everything  for  me,"  was  the  best 
description  of  this  useful  but  unpopular  person. 

He  was  said  to  take  large  percentages  from  the 
tradesmen,  and  in  return  would,  when  possible,  give 

1  Notes  of  a  Railway  Superintendent.     By  G.   P.  Neele. 


FOR  MONEY,  MONEY'S  WORTH     169 

them  his  help.  Thus,  when  in  1878  the  Court  re- 
mained for  Christmas  at  Windsor,  the  Mayor  went  to 
see  his  friend  Brown  to  say  that  the  town  would 
sustain  much  loss  if  on  Boxing  Day  there  were  no 
attraction  for  the  visitors.  So  Brown  promised  to  use 
his  influence  with  the  Queen,  who,  to  the  intense 
astonishment  of  all  around  her,  ordered  the  state 
apartments  to  be  open  to  the  public  on  that  day,  though 
she  was  in  residence.  The  day  was  wet,  and  The 
Times  reported  that  "  the  state  apartments  of  the 
castle  being  opened  proved  a  refuge  to  the  unfor- 
tunate pleasure-seekers." 

This,  however,  is  a  digression. 

A  fortnight  after  the  day  of  thanksgiving  Sir 
Charles  Dilke  was  ill-advised  enough  to  repeat  in 
the  House  the  speech  he  had  made  in  the  autumn, 
on  bringing  forward  a  motion  for  an  inquiry  into  the 
manner  in  which  the  income  and  allowances  of  the 
Crown  were  expended.  As  both  he  and  Auberon 
Herbert  announced  themselves  as  republicans  there 
was  a  terrible  uproar,  with  booing  and  shouts  of 
"  Vide  !  "  while  one  member  from  behind  the  Speaker's 
chair  gave  loud  cock-crows,  a  form  of  derision  which 
had  not  been  heard  in  that  place  for  forty  years. 
Professor  Fawcett  opposed  the  motion,  saying  that 
republicanism  had  nothing  to  do  with  huckstering  and 
haggling  over  the  cost  of  the  Queen's  income."  It 
was  lost  by  276  to  4. 

Victoria  is  reported  as  saying  musingly  of  Dilke, 
whose  father  had  received  a  baronetcy  for  his  services 
in  the  Great  Exhibition  of  1851,  "I  have  had  him  on 


170    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

my  lap.    I  have  stroked  his  hair.    I  suppose  I  stroked 
it  the  wrong  way," 

But  though  sentiment  was  to  the  fore  at  the  moment, 
this   did   not   prevent   a   widespread   conviction   that 
great  injustice  was  being  done  in  the  use  of  public 
money.     The  preceding  autumn  a  pamphlet  had  been 
widely  disseminated,  entitled  What  does  she  do  with 
it?  by  "  Solomon  Temple,  Builder."    It  gave  a  state- 
ment of  the  case  which,  though  exaggerated  in  financial 
details,  which  could  only  be  guessed  at,  was  just  and 
temperate,  showing  how  the  Civil  List  was  a  public 
matter,  and  had  always  been  treated  as  a  public  matter 
until  about   1850,  when,  under  the  influence  of  the 
Prince  Consort,  the  Lords  of  the  Treasury  had  de- 
nounced   Lord    Brougham's   questions,    to    which   he 
demanded  answers,  concerning  the  great  savings  made 
upon  the   Civil   List,   as  improper,   mischievous  and 
disloyal.      By  the  Civil  List  the  Queen  was  allotted 
£60,000  a  year  for  her  own  private  use,  concerning 
which  no  one  had  a  right  to  criticize ;  further  sums 
of  £131,260  went  for  salaries  and  retired  allowances 
for  her  Majesty's  household,  £172,500  for  household 
expenses,  and  £13,200  for  alms  and  bounty.     These 
sums  were,  as  the  Civil  List  Act  stated,  to  enable  the 
Queen  to  "  defray  the  expenses  of  her  royal  house- 
hold, and  to  support  the  honour  and  dignity  of  the 
Crown."     Now  it  had  been  admitted  that  the  Prince 
Consort  had  by  1849  effected  considerable  savings  on 
the  salary  list — savings  which  had  gone  on,  and  even 
been   increased,   yearly;  thorough   secrecy  had  been 
maintained  as  to  what  use  the  money  had  been  put. 


FOR  MONEY,  MONEY'S  WORTH     171 

The  natural  inference  was  that  it  had  been  diverted 
to  swell  the  sum  of  £60,000  allotted  to  the  Queen's 
private  use.  It  was  further  known  that  the  Prince  had 
left  a  very  considerable  sum  of  money  by  will;  this 
again  was  treated  with  secrecy,  only  the  Queen  being 
aware  of  what  the  sum  was  or  what  had  become  of  it. 
A  miser  named  John  Camden  Neild  had  left  Victoria 
a  quarter  of  a  million  pounds  as  well  as  large  estates, 
and  others  to  a  less  degree  had  followed  his  example. 
And  meanwhile  it  was  believed  by  every  one  that  in 
her  secluded  life  the  Queen  made  further  great  savings 
on  the  Civil  List.  It  was  therefore  felt  that  the 
public  should  be  assured  that  the  money  voted  by 
them  for  the  maintenance  of  state  was  not  being 
diverted  simply  to  add  to  the  great  riches  of  one 
who  was  already  an  immensely  rich  woman.  But  no 
assurance  of  the  kind  was  given,  and  so  almost  to  the 
day  of  her  death  this  matter  rankled  in  the  minds  of 
the  Queen's  subjects,  who  felt  that  the  refusal  of 
ministers  to  treat  the  Civil  List  as  a  public  matter 
meant  that  all  the  suspicions  were  true,  and  that  the 
country  had  no  right  to  be  asked  constantly  to  add  by 
annuities  and  dowries  to  the  wealth  of  one  familv. 


CHAPTER    XI 

THE    WIDOW    IN    THE    HIGHLANDS 

"  We  wish  our  Queen  would  dance  a  little  more, 

Would  follow  Queen  Elizabeth's  example; 
And  of  her  powers  upon  the  dancing-floor 

Would  give  us  Englishmen  a  sample. 
That  Scots  alone  are  favoured  makes  us  sore, 

For  surely  London's  loyalty  's  as  ample; 
And,  with  all  deference,  we  think  it  silly 
To  dance  a  reel  with  gamekeeper  or  gillie." 

Jon  Duan. 

"Come  awa  ben  and  sit  doon,  Queen  Victoria." — Greeting  of 
Scotch  peasant  to  her  Sovereign.1 

IF  Queen  Victoria  took  her  royal  position  with  in- 
tense seriousness  and  felt  herself  to  be  above  all  social 
law,  she  yet  possessed  a  simple  outlook  upon  life  which 
allowed  her  to  get  a  great  deal  out  of  it,  and  to  find 
amusement  where  many  a  society  dame  would  have 
been  terribly  bored.  She  also  showed  a  fund  of 
sympathy  for  personal  troubles  which  endeared  her  to 
many  individuals. 

In  Scotland  she  could  develop  her  taste  for  sim- 
plicity to  the  fullest  extent,  could  let  every  act  be 
dictated  by  the  habits  and  wishes  of  the  dead.  Albert 
had  said  that  the  Scotch  peasants  resembled  the 
country  people  of  Coburg,  and  so  she  trusted  and 
loved  them.  In  England  she  feared  always  lest  some 

1  Recollections  of  a  Royal  Parish.     By  Patricia  Lindsay. 

172 


THE   WIDOW  IN  THE  HIGHLANDS     173 

one  should  take  a  liberty  with  her,  in  England  she 
made  no  friends  either  rich  or  poor.  In  the  north 
she  was  friends  with  all,  allowed  all  to  talk  as  they 
would,  and  laid  aside  her  fear  that  they  should  be 
"indiscreet"  enough  to  take  a  liberty.  This  was 
carried  to  such  an  extraordinary  length  that  those  who 
went  north  with  her  found  a  totally  different  mistress 
from  the  one  they  had  served  at  Windsor.  Lady 
Canning  would  warn  a  maid-of-honour  before  starting 
in  the  following  words — 

'  You  will  be  delighted  with  your  waiting  at  Bal- 
moral or  Osborne.  You  will  see  the  Queen  intimately, 
riding,  dancing,  playing,  dining.  You  will  think  she 
cannot  get  on  without  you.  And  then  you  will  come 
back  one  day  to  Windsor,  and  some  one  else  will  take 
your  place,  and  you  will  have  become — a  number  on 
a  list." 

In  Scotland  her  Majesty  became  unrestrainedly  a 
woman  of  the  higher  middle  class;  there  she  knew 
every  one  in  her  house  or  on  her  estate — at  Windsor 
men  had  served  her  for  decades  and  never  received  a 
word  from  her.  From  the  moment  that  she  turned 
her  back  upon  her  castle  her  spirits  began  to  rise, 
and  the  nearer  she  got  to  Balmoral  the  higher  they 
went. 

The  journeys  to  Scotland  were  elaborate  affairs. 
Court  officials,  railway  managers,  superintendents  were 
all  at  work,  pilot  engines  had  to  be  supplied  and 
different  lines  linked;  patrols  by  the  thousand  were 
engaged  to  guard  the  lines,  every  over-bridge  and 
under-bridge  had  its  man  to  prevent  trespass;  other 


174     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

trains  were  stopped  fifteen  minutes  before  and  after 
the  passing  of  the  royal  train,  and  all  shunting  ceased 
for  half  an  hour  before.  A  look-out  man  travelled  on 
the  engine  to  perform  the  impossible  feat  of  watching 
both  sides  of  the  train  at  once  in  case  anything  hap- 
pened or  the  Queen  wished  the  speed  altered. 

As  the  hour  for  leaving  Windsor  drew  near  the 
officers  of  the  Great  Western  would  assemble  on  the 
platform,  and  to  the  porters  would  be  left  the  conduct 
of  those  who  first  arrived,  the  pages,  servants  and 
humble  members  of  the  suite.  Then  came  the  ladies, 
equerries  and  lords-in-waiting,  followed  by  the  junior 
members  of  the  family.  When  all  these  were  safely 
given  their  respective  seats,  with  a  clatter  of  quickly 
moving  hoofs  came  the  Queen.  In  hot  haste  John 
Brown  and  Francis  Clarke  would  drop  from  their 
high  seats,  run  to  open  the  door  and  assist  her  Majesty 
to  alight. 

The  carriages  of  the  Queen  and  the  Princesses  were 
perfectly  fitted,  the  former  very  gorgeous  with  blue 
silk  walls  and  white  silk  ceiling ;  but  no  other  carriage 
had  sanitary  arrangements,  which  necessitated  various 
stops  at  isolated  places  during  the  afternoon  and 
night.  Prince  Albert  had  always  decreed  that  a 
marked  difference  should  be  made  in  all  respects 
between  the  treatment  of  the  family  and  the  attend- 
ants, and  the  Queen  never  dreamed  of  altering 
things.  It  was  "a  fond  clinging  to  old  association," 
as  Neele,  the  superintendent,  said  when  the  last  ten 
miles  of  the  line  had  been  built  from  Ballater  and 
Victoria  refused  for  two  years  to  use  it,  insisting 


THE   WIDOW  IN  THE  HIGHLANDS     175 

upon  driving  as  heretofore.  It  needed  a  strong 
representation  from  Dr.  Jenner  as  to  the  necessity  of 
improved  sanitation  before  any  mercy  was  shown  to 
the  suite. 

There  was  another  difference  too,  amusing  to  look 
back  upon,  but  very  vexing  for  those  who  suffered 
from  it.  The  doorways  of  the  trains  were  very  high 
up,  and  to  the  Queen's  carriage  a  pair  of  folding  steps 
were  fixed ;  but  to  the  others  there  was  given  no  means 
of  descent.  The  little  stopping  places  were  at  lonely 
spots  where  there  were  no  platforms ;  Beattock  Summit 
was  one  of  these,  and  the  Queen  would  often  send 
word  to  some  lady  that  she  wished  her  presence  from 
that  or  some  other  point  to  the  next.  It  might  be  in 
fine  weather,  but  it  also  might  be  in  a  storm,  and  the 
unfortunate  chosen  one  would  have  to  drop  from  her 
carriage  somehow  over  its  steep,  wet  side,  and  some- 
times return  under  the  same  conditions.  Thus  there 
is  a  record  of  Lady  Ely  being  summoned  in  the  pour- 
ing rain  of  a  November  afternoon  at  Greenhill,  and 
being  sent  back  at  the  Summit.  The  dress  of  the 
period  included  long  trains,  huge  bustles,  great  chig- 
nons and  thin  shoes,  and  thus  the  train  superintendent 
found  Lady  Ely  trying  to  swarm  up  the  wet  side  of 
the  carriage.  He  is  too  delicate  to  relate  how  he 
hoisted  her  up;  but  he  does  tell  how  the  Caledonian 
manager,  a  very  short,  sturdy  man,  used  to  amuse  his 
friends  by  describing  his  adventure  in  "  pushing  up  " 
Lady  Augusta  Bruce  on  one  occasion.  No  one  dared 
to  suggest  that  the  royal  privilege  of  steps  should  be 
accorded  these  humbler  people,  and  the  eventual 


176    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

remedy  was  to  change  the  defective  stopping  places 
for  more  convenient  ones. 

John  Brown,  it  is  said,  never  noticed  the  need  of 
steps,  and  would  swing  himself  up  and  down  easily, 
his  Highland  costume  probably  being  an  advantage. 
If  some  suffering  lady  had  condescended  to  entreat 
him,  maybe  the  trouble  would  have  disappeared  much 
earlier  than  it  did. 

The  Queen's  desire  for  privacy  was  strongly  im- 
pressed upon  the  railway  officials,  and  though  the  train 
started  in  the  afternoon  this  privacy  was  strictly  main- 
tained through  England.  If  the  train  stopped  at  any 
southern  station  the  platform  would  generally  be 
cleared.  But  before  Perth  was  reached  Victoria  would 
be  in  a  gayer  frame  of  mind,  and  there  "  Her  Majesty 
was  generally  greeted  by  a  bright  gathering  of  her 
lieges."  Thus  in  1867,  when  criticism  upon  royal 
seclusion  had  been  loud,  the  strictest  orders  were 
given  that  on  no  pretext  was  any  person  to  be  allowed 
in  any  station  south  of  Perth;  and  by  some  mistake 
the  good  Perthians  were  also  shut  out.  The  Queen 
quickly  rectified  this  insult  to  her  beloved  Scots,  the 
barriers  were  removed  and  she  graciously  acknow- 
ledged the  cheers  of  the  crowd. 

"  No  accidents  ever  happen  to  a  royal  train,  it  is 
too  well  looked  after,"  said  Punch,  but  there  was  once 
very  nearly  an  accident,  when  a  yardman  took  a  goods 
wagon,  hauled  by  a  horse,  straight  across  the  main 
line  just  as  the  Queen's  train  came  up.  A  gentleman 
gallantly  jumped  on  the  line  and  waved  the  driver  of 
the  train  back,  and  he  stopped  in  time.  Such  is  the 


THE  WIDOW  IN  THE  HIGHLANDS     177 

account,  but  it  might  be  imagined  that  a  goods  wagon 
was  as  visible  as  a  man.  On  another  occasion  there 
were  a  series  of  misfortunes.  The  engines  were  late, 
to  begin  with,  the  brake  on  her  Majesty's  carriage 
broke;  at  Perth  the  station  was  being  altered,  which 
necessitated  the  Queen  descending  on  the  up  side  and 
having  to  walk  to  her  luncheon-room  on  the  down 
line.  The  up  platform,  alas,  had  not  been  kept  clear, 
and  she  was  almost  jostled  by  the  people  crowding  to 
their  train.  Then  her  saloon  lamps  incontinently 
extinguished  themselves,  and  lastly,  on  arrival  at 
Windsor,  the  Queen's  portion  of  the  train,  which  was 
detached  there  to  allow  her  to  descend  quietly  on  a 
special  platform,  would  not  move,  and  it  took  some 
minutes  to  get  it  to  stir  into  the  terminus.  Some  evil 
spirit  must  have  been  at  work  to  annoy  her  Majesty. 

When  the  royal  party  returned  from  Scotland  in  the 
autumn  of  1870,  Princess  Louise,  who  had  just  become 
engaged,  was  carried  to  the  train  on  a  litter,  for  in 
some  way  she  had  hurt  her  knee,  and  in  a  recumbent 
position  she  received  delighted  ovations  from  the 
pleased  Scottish  crowds.  There  was  some  "  cursed 
spite  "  against  the  royal  knee.  Prince  Leopold  fell 
at  a  dance  about  this  time  and  sprained  his  knee;  the 
Princess  of  Wales  suffered  for  many  years  with  her 
knee,  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  what  some  one 
described  as  a  "  finicking  walk  with  a  weak  knee  " ; 
in  '69,  '71  and  '83  the  Queen  was  laid  up  with 
rheumatism  or  sprain  of  the  knee. 

In  Scotland,  as  has  been  said,  the  Queen  became  a 
different  woman.  She  would  lay  aside  some  of  her 


178     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

decisiveness,  would  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  not  know- 
ing her  own  mind,  and  would  in  some  matters  be  under 
the  domination  of  a  favourite  servant,  not  being  quite 
sure  as  to  which  road  she  would  take  or  which  dress 
she  would  wear.  Here  she  could  indulge  in  sad 
reminiscences  or  homely  joy,  a  good  example  being 
the  house-warming  at  the  Glassalt  Shiel,  the  first 
widow's  house.  At  this  all,  save  Victoria,  and  includ- 
ing Louise  and  Lady  Ely,  danced  reels,  the  rest  of 
the  company  being  sixteen  servants,  among  whom  were 
the  policeman  supposed  to  be  on  guard,  and  a  stable- 
man. The  following  is  from  her  Majesty's  book — 

"After  the  first  reel  whisky  toddy  was  brought 
round  for  every  one,  and  Brown  begged  I  would  drink 
to  the  '  fire-kindling.'  Then  Grant  made  a  little 
speech,  with  an  allusion  to  the  wild  place  we  were  in, 
and  concluding  with  a  wish  '  that  our  Royal  Mistress, 
our  good  Queen '  should  '  live  long.'  .  .  .  Sad  thoughts 
filled  my  heart  both  before  dinner  and  when  I  was 
alone  and  retired  to  rest.  I  thought  of  the  happy- 
past  and  my  darling  husband,  whom  I  thought  I  must 
see,  and  who  always  wished  to  build  here  in  this 
favourite  wild  spot,  quite  in  among  the  hills." 

At  Balmoral  the  Queen  often  gave  a  dance,  but 
those  invited  only  included  the  officials,  ladies, 
servants,  outdoor  men,  and  sometimes  the  relatives  of 
the  latter  and  some  who  lived  on  the  estate.  Sir 
Arthur  Helps  mentioned  in  a  letter  such  a  dance  at 
which  a  little  "tiger"  distinguished  himself  by  con- 
triving to  get  the  Princess  of  Wales  as  a  partner,  and 
a  coachman  cut  out  the  Prince  in  a  "perpetual  jig." 


The  Queen  would  remain  watching  the  gaiety  for 
hours  and  then,  on  one  occasion,  was  persuaded  to  join 
in,  her  first  partners  being  her  young  grandsons.  The 
news  of  this,  of  course,  duly  reported  in  the  English 
papers,  would  have  pleased  her  English  subjects,  but 
unfortunately  the  injudicious  monarch  followed  her 
first  dances  by  joining  in  a  reel  with  John  Brown  and 
then  in  another  with  a  gamekeeper.  In  the  then  state 
of  public  criticism  this  was  made  the  subject  of  some- 
what bitter  banter  and  jokes,  the  chief  point  of  which 
was  the  utter  difference  between  Victoria  in  England 
and  Victoria  in  Scotland. 

"It  is  not  seemly  that  the  servants'  hall 

Should  form  a  Court,  nor  that  the  servants  there 

Should  be  the  sole  invites  to  a  ball 
Which  the  Queen  graces  with  her  presence  rare; 

Nor  that  she  only  hold  high  Carnival 

When  her  Scotch  servants  marry ;   'tis  not  fair 

To  us,  who  royal  smiles  are  never  rich  in, 

To  find  them  lavished  freely  on  her  kitchen. 

References  were  freely  made  to  that  not-to-be- 
forgotten  Elizabethan  episode,  when  the  Virgin 
Queen,  being  asked  by  the  Spanish  ambassador  to 
wed  Philip  of  Spain,  replied,  though  in  less  rhyming 
words— 

"Supreme  is  the  honour  of  him  to  be  sought; 

Oblige  him  I'm  sorry  I  can't,  oh  ! 

But  lest  you  should  think  you  have  come  here  for  nought, 
You  shall  see  how  I  dance  the  coranto." 

And  the   ambassador  was  so  amazed  that  he  could 
only  record  to  his  master— 

"  I  have  seen  the  Head  of  the  English  Church 
dancing !  " 


180     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Scotland  would  never  have  made  fun  of  the  Queen 
in  this  way,  but  then,  as  Punch  once  pointed  out  in  a 
bogus  Queen's^  Speech,  Scotland  had  reason  to  be 
restrained.  "  Scotland  gives  me  no  trouble,  but  then 
I  am  so  often  there,  and  we  know  the  frequent  appear- 
ances of  the  Sovereign  tend  to  raise  the  temperature 
of  the  nation." 

Sometimes  Victoria  had  less  pleasing  experiences 
than  balls  and  house-warmings,  and  one  such  was  a 
spill  on  a  dark  night  when  returning  home.  Princesses 
Alice  and  Helena  were  with  her,  Brown  was  on  the 
box,  and  Smith  was  the  coachman.  The  latter 
"  seemed  to  be  quite  confused,  and  got  off  the  road 
several  times,  once  in  a  very  dangerous  place."  Alice 
probably  saw  that  the  man  was  drunk,  for  she  was 
uneasy,  even  when  he  was  driving  straight ;  but  Brown 
was  much  too  thoughtlessly  careful,  for  he  held  up  a 
lantern,  "though  the  road  was  as  broad  and  plain  as 
possible,"  and  the  glare  in  the  man's  eyes  could  only 
have  made  him  less  fit.  Shortly  the  carriage  turned 
over.  The  Queen — remembering  as  in  a  flash  that 
there  were  things  she  had  not  settled  and  still  wanted 
to  do — being  thrown  on  her  face  "very  hard,"  and 
the  Princesses  being  pinned  down  by  their  clothes. 
Brown  cried,  "  The  Lord  Almighty  have  mercy  on  us  ! 
Who  did  ever  see  the  like  of  this  before?  I  thought 
you  were  all  killed."  The  horses  lay  on  their  sides  as 
if  dead,  and  the  driver  stood  stupidly  staring.  The 
Princesses  got  free  by  tearing  their  clothes,  and  then 
helped  their  mother  up,  sitting  her  in  the  side  of  the 
overturned  carriage,  and  it  is  a  most  curious  revela- 


THE  WIDOW  IN  THE  HIGHLANDS     181 

tion  of  the  motive  power  which  guided  the  Queen's 
life  that  as  she  sat  there  she  meditated — 

"  I  am  thankful  that  it  (the  accident)  was  caused 
by  no  imprudence  of  mine,  or  the  slightest  devia- 
tion from  what  my  beloved  one  and  I  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  doing,  and  which  he  sanctioned  and 
approved." 

Dear,  limited,  superstitious  soul !  and  in  this  spirit 
she  was  governing  a  great  nation  like  England — and 
putting  the  fault  of  non-success  upon  England  and 
her  statesmen. 

The  way  for  another  drive  on  a  pitch-dark  night  lay 
through  a  wood,  but  the  coachman,  blinded  with  rain, 
lost  his  bearings  and  took  them  by  a  road  which  was 
no  road,  over  hummocks  and  through  deep  holes  rilled 
with  water.  The  Duchess  of  Athole  was  with  the 
Queen,  and  General  Grey,  who  was  in  a  carriage  in 
front,  called  back  to  her  to  know  which  way  she 
thought  they  should  go,  whereupon  the  modest, 
faithful  one,  Brown,  instantly  shouted — 

'  The  Duchess  don't  know  at  all  where  we  are." 

Brown's  kilt  got  heavy  with  rain  and  the  edge  of  it 
cut  his  leg  at  the  back,  much  to  Victoria's  concern, 
who  had  the  doctor  to  him,  and  for  several  days 
entered  in  her  diary  the  stages  of  his  progress  towards 
recovery. 

Victoria's  books  on  Scotland  give  no  hint  that  the 
Scotch  were  not  perfection,  yet  she  suffered  somewhat 
from  their  want  of  manners.  Those  who  lived  near 
her  had  their  meed  of  royalty,  but  those  who  lived  at 
a  distance  were  as  curious,  as  eager  and  as  vulgar  as 


182    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

any  of  her  English  subjects,  and  resorted  to  every 
dodge  known  to  the  celebrity  hunter  to  catch  a  glimpse 
of  her.  Craithie  Church  offered  the  best  facility,  and 
enterprising  owners  ran  post-chaises  and  omnibuses 
there  on  Sundays  crammed  with  sightseers,  who  made 
a  scramble  for  the  best  pews  or  bribed  the  canny  sides- 
men to  secure  them.  For  fear  of  coming  off  second 
best  they  carried  binoculars,  so  that  they  might  be 
assured  of  watching  their  Queen  at  her  devotions. 
In  their  exuberant  loyalty  they  would  even  stand  on 
the  seats  and  turn  their  backs  to  the  altar.  Having 
sufficiently  adored  those  in  the  royal  pew,  they  would 
then  take  to  the  open  air,  and  spreading  their 
luncheons  on  the  flat  tombstones,  enjoy  the  second  part 
of  the  entertainment. 

There  were  times  when  her  Majesty  wearied  of  this 
and  used  her  own  drawing-room  as  a  place  of  worship, 
allowing  certain  friends  in  the  district  to  join  in  the 
service.  Tactics  would  be  changed  then  by  those  who 
had  sufficient  money,  and  splendid  carriages  would 
roll  to  the  castle,  rilled  with  worshippers  of  royalty. 
This  had  to  be  met  by  posting  detectives  in  plain 
clothes  around  Balmoral  and  about  the  neighbour- 
hood. So  each  carriage  had  to  render  an  account, 
and  many  a  disappointed,  well-dressed  hooligan  was 
sent  empty  away  of  his  or  her  Sabbath  pleasure. 

In  1878  the  Queen  bought  Ballochbuie  Forest, 
which  was  being  sold  for  its  trees,  a  sale  which  had 
strong  merits,  as  at  least  the  land  would  have  had  a 
chance  of  being  brought  under  cultivation — for  it  is 
the  "  forests  "  of  Scotland  which  have  kept  it  poor. 


THE  WIDOW  IN  THE  HIGHLANDS     188 

However,  the  idea  hurt  the  Queen,  who  thought  it 
desecration,  so  she  purchased  it  herself  on  condition 
that  the  trees  were  allowed  to  remain  standing. 
Within  it,  on  Creag  Doin,  she  built  a  cairn,  inscribing 
on  it — 

"  Queen  Victoria  entered  into  possession  of  Balloch- 
buie  May  15,  1878.  The  bonniest  plaid  in  Scotland." 
The  last  words  allude  to  a  tradition  that  Ballochbuie 
was  once  sold  at  the  point  of  a  dirk  by  a  MacGregor 
to  a  Farquharson  for  a  tartan  plaid. 

When  Victoria  died  she  possessed  Balmoral, 
Ballochbuie,  Birkhall  and  Abergeldie — an  aggregate 
of  50,000  acres.  The  Lochnager  distillery  was  also 
hers;  in  the  south  Osborne  was  her  private  property; 
she  further  had  estates  at  Coburg,  the  Villa  Hohenlohe 
at  Baden-Baden,  and  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster. 
Osborne  and  Balmoral  had  been  bought  and  built  by 
royal  savings  during  the  life  of  the  Prince  Consort, 
and  as  each  place  ran  into  several  hundred  thousands 
of  pounds,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  where  the  savings  on 
the  salaries  and  other  departments  of  the  Civil  List 
had  gone. 

Sir  Edward  Russell  in  a  recent  book,  That  Reminds 
Me,  gives  an  anecdote  of  the  Queen,  which  is 
interesting. 

In  talking  to  a  man  of  standing  she  remarked  that 
she  did  not  like  a  certain  family,  and  on  being  asked 
why,  replied — 

"Oh,  because  they  are  very  bad  to  their  tenants, 
and  many  of  their  cottages  are  in  a  horrid  state;  and 
if  anything  is  done  by  any  tenants  at  their  own  expense 


184     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

to  improve  their  condition,  the  first  thing  the 's  do 

is  to  raise  the  rent  upon  them." 

The  gentleman  said  he  was  glad  that  she  sympa- 
thized with  the  afflictions  of  tenants,  to  which  she 
answered — 

"  Oh,   I  am  a  tenant  myself.      I  hold  from 

Mr.  and  I  have  made  many  improvements,  and 

every  time  I  have  made  an  improvement  my  rent  has 
been  raised." 

The  gentleman  laughed  outright,  and  her  Majesty's 
eyes  twinkled. 

"Well,  ma'am,  let  me  say  that  this  you  have 
complained  of  underlies  and  is  the  basis  of  the  whole 
Irish  question. and  the  whole  Crofter  question.  It  is 
rather  amusing  to  find  your  Majesty  suffering  from  a 
grievance  as  a  crofter." 

Then  her  Majesty  laughed  very  much. 

"  I  can  only  say/'  he  added,  "  how  good  it  is  to 
find  you  sharing  in  the  afflictions  of  the  poorest  of 
your  subjects." 

The  Queen's  heart  was  in  the  right  place,  as  the  old 
saying  has  it,  and  especially  in  Scotland  might  have 
been  added,  for  her  Scottish  tenants  were  well  looked 
after.  But  from  time  to  time  paragraphs  of  want 
in  Osborne  cottages  were  published.  In  1873  some 
of  her  labourers  were  discharged  for  sending  a  round 
robin  to  her  asking  for  an  increase  of  wages.  They 
were  getting  14.3.  a  week,  but  as  in  the  vicinity  of 
royalty  prices  are  inflated,  this  did  not  go  further 
than  1 1 s.  elsewhere.  They  worked  from  sixty  to 
seventy  hours  a  week,  so  they  also  asked  to  leave  off 


at  four  on  Saturdays  and  to  have  sixpence  an  hour 
for  overtime.  The  Queen  sent  no  answer  to  the  letter, 
but  the  men  were  called  before  the  steward,  and  those 
regarded  as  ringleaders  were  dismissed.  The  rest 
went  back  to  the  old  conditions. 

Yet  there  were  yearly  fetes  to  the  tenants,  queenly 
visits  to  cottagers  and  certain  charities. 

It  is  said  that  Victoria  would  sometimes  fall  a  prey 
to  toadies,  and  take  up  some  relative  of  one  of  her 
people,  being  deeply  interested ;  and  when  the  person 
in  question  proved  disappointing,  she  would  remark, 
"  Not  very  pretty  manners,  poor  thing  !  Well,  well !  ): 

It  was  this  personal  desire  to  be  kind  to  individuals 
which  would  lead  her  to  make  of  the  Court  Circular 
an  advertising  column  occasionally.  Thus  we  get,  in 
1871,  this  absurd  notice,  "Lord  Lurgan's  famous 
champion  Irish  greyhound  has  had  the  honour  of 
being  presented  to  her  Majesty  at  Windsor."  This 
dog  had  won  the  Waterloo  Cup  three  times. 

A  little  later  it  was,  "  Madam  Hazer  has  had  the 
honour  of  exhibiting  her  dog  Minos  before  the  Queen 
and  the  Royal  Family,  and  her  Majesty  was  very 
pleased  with  the  performance." 

Victoria  was  extremely  fond  of  dogs,  but  could  not 
bear  cats,  to  stroke  a  kitten  being  the  nearest  she  could 
go  in  showing  that  animal  friendship.  Shortly  after 
the  first  Jubilee  she  was  said  to  be  in  great  grief  over 
the  death  of  her  dog  Noble,  and  one  reporter  added 
to  his  account  of  this  that  "  Noble  had  for  fifteen  years 
mixed  with  the  highest  societv."  It  was  a  French- 
man who,  believing  his  English  immaculate,  observed 


186    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

that  in  regard  to  her  Government  the  Queen  was  only 
a  pu-p-py  !  A  goat  that  Victoria  once  gave  as  a  mascot, 
then  called  a  pet,  to  the  Welsh  Fusiliers,  was  well 
behaved  for  a  time,  as  a  Queen's  gift  should  be.  But 
he  grew  tired  of  virtue,  and  took  to  mischief,  his 
culminating  crime  being  to  butt  his  colonel  when  he 
was  in  the  act  of  pushing  in  his  trouser-strap,  thus 
throwing  him  against  a  wall  and  causing  black  eyes. 
Had  it  not  been  for  his  splendid  youthful  record  the 
goat  would  have  been  drummed  out  of  the  regiment, 
as  it  was  he  was  ever  after  known  by  the  disgraceful 
title  of  the  Rebel. 


CHAPTER   XII 

FAMILY    JARS 

"  A  more  effete,  ungracious,  uncivilized  creature  than  this 
yellow-faced  Persian  could  not  be  imagined,  but  English  society, 
while  he  was  in  London,  prostrated  itself  before  him  and  his 
ugly  jewels  as  if  he  were  some  demi-god  fresh  from  Olympus  .  .  . 
a  man  without  recommendation  except  that  he  is  called  by  his 
slaves  and  courtiers,  and  by  himself,  the  King  of  kings  and  the 
Lord  of  lords."— Lord  Ronald  Cower:  'Reminiscences.' 

"  Marie  of  Edinburgh  made  a  fuss 

And  summoned  to  her  aid  her  royal  dad, 
Because  a  princess  who's  most  dear  to  us 

Declined  to  listen  to  her  foolish  fad, 
Or  questions  of  precedence  to  discuss. 
But  if  it's  true  then  Marie  must  take  care, 
Lest  she  be  called  the  little  Russian  Bear." 

The  Hornet. 

DURING  these  years  of  royal  domestic  and  semi- 
domestic  happenings  her  Majesty's  Government  had 
also  been  busy.  The  Ballot  Act  was  passed,  also  the 
Irish  Land  Act  of  1870,  and  the  matter  before  the 
country  early  in  1873  was  the  Irish  University  Bill. 
On  this  Gladstone  was  defeated  by  three  and  promptly 
tendered  his  resignation,  which  the  Queen  just  as 
promptly  and  much  more  delightedly  accepted.  Glad- 
stone had  bored  her  to  death  by  wanting  her  to  under- 
stand the  intricacies  of  his  bills,  and  one  day  she  had 

handed   over   his   explanation    of    the    Irish    Bill    to 

187 


188     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Theodore  Martin  with  the  request  that  he  would  reduce 
it  all  to  a  few  lines  ! 

So  as  Disraeli  had  done  his  utmost  to  overthrow 
the  Government,  bringing  members  from  the  far  ends 
of  the  country — and  even  further,  she  sent  for  him 
as  confidently  as  she  said  good-bye  to  Gladstone,  and 
— he  declined  to  serve  her  !  "  He  could  not  undertake 
to  carry  on  her  Majesty's  Government  in  the  present 
House  of  Commons,"  and  "he  would  not  advise  her 
Majesty  to  recommend  a  dissolution." 

Such  a  reply,  unparliamentary  and  unprecedented, 
seemed  like  that  of  a  mischievous  boy  who,  having 
created  havoc,  refused  to  do  his  share  in  putting  things 
straight ;  but  in  reality  it  was  his  way,  not  exactly  well 
principled,  of  carrying  out  his  own  policy.  He  knew 
that  he  could  not  use  his  little  majority,  and  he  wanted 
to  turn  it  into  a  large  one.  So  while  Gladstone  had 
to  go  back  to  work,  and  the  Queen  endured  it  with 
distress,  Disraeli  stumped  the  country  discrediting  the 
Government,  accusing  the  Ministry  of  every  wicked- 
ness, and  explaining  that  they  "sat  in  a  row  on  the 
Treasury  benches,"  reminding  him  "of  a  range  of 
extinct  volcanoes." 

Early  in  August  Gladstone  went  to  Osborne  to  see 
the  Queen,  and  late  in  August  he  went  to  Balmoral 
to  stay  a  few  days,  during  which  Victoria  displayed 
perfect  good-humour  and  interest  in  his  family,  saying 
to  Lord  Granville  "that  she  had  never  known  Glad- 
stone so  remarkably  agreeable." 

She  had  special  reason  for  wanting  the  help  of  a 
minister  sympathetic  to  her  interests,  and  Gladstone 


FAMILY    JARS  189 

had  ever  done  his  best  for  her  in  money  matters,  the 
trouble  being  that  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  over- 
whelmed with  debt,  £600,000  being  the  rumoured  sum, 
and  either  she  would  have  to  pay  it  or  the  country 
must  do  so.  She  had  looked  backwards  into  history 
for  a  precedent,  and  had  found  that  the  debts  of 
George  IV  when  Prince  had  been  paid  by  the  nation, 
and  she  trusted  that  the  same  thing  would  happen 
again.  Thus  Gladstone  was  asked  to  pass  a  Bill  to 
liquidate  the  Prince's  liabilities.  He,  with  his  finger 
on  the  pulse  of  the  nation,  dared  not,  for  her  own 
sake,  accede.  He  made  a  suggestion,  however,  which 
might  have  been  carried  into  effect  had  it  not  been 
for  the  strong  opposition  of  Sir  Charles  Dilke.  The 
suggestion  was  that  Victoria  should  transfer  to  Albert 
Edward  some  real  estate,  which  would  naturally  go 
to  him  at  her  death;  and  to  circumvent  the  law  that 
this  property  would  become  national  property  and 
therefore  inalienable  if  the  heir  received  it  before 
his  accession,  Gladstone  proposed  a  Bill  guaran- 
teeing its  remaining  personal  property.  With  Dilke 
tabulating  the  immense  royal  personal  possessions, 
bought  perhaps  with  Civil  List  money,  it  proved 
impossible  that  such  a  Bill  could  be  allowed  to  slip 
through. 

The  only  plan  left  was  that  the  Queen  should  pay 
these  debts  herself,  and  it  was  with  some  justice  asked, 
why  not?  The  Prince  had  been  doing  her  work  on 
little  more  than  a  fourth  of  the  sum  especially  allowed 
to  her  Majesty  for  the  purpose,  and  though  it  is  more 
than  probable  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  debts  had 


190    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

been  contracted  in  ways  that  had  no  relation  to  State 
concerns,  yet  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Prince 
had  been  deliberately  shut  out  from  any  intellectual 
share  in  the  country's  affairs,  and  was  so  much  the  more 
likely  to  find  amusement  by  easy  and  extravagant 
means. 

The  Queen  could  not  see  that  she  was  responsible, 
so,  disappointed  and  angry  at  Gladstone's  failure,  she 
eagerly  awaited  a  change  of  Government,  but — though 
I  do  not  know  the  sequel — she  probably  paid  the 
debts,  for  Abergeldie,  a  property  owned  by  the  Prince 
in  Scotland  near  Balmoral,  passed  into  her  hands.  It 
may  be  that  Gladstone  tried  to  salve  her  disappoint- 
ment by  bringing  in  the  Crown  Private  Estates  Act, 
for  such  a  one  was  passed  this  year,  by  which  the 
Queen  was  given  the  power  to  invest  savings  like  a 
private  person,  a  course  hitherto  against  the  law,  as 
it  was  thought  undesirable  that  the  monarch  should 
be  independent  of  Parliament. 

In  later  years  Victoria  rebuked  Gladstone  strongly 
for  making  speeches  in  other  places  than  his  own 
constituency,  but  it  did  not  trouble  her  in  1873  that 
Disraeli,  the  leader  of  the  Opposition,  broke  political 
rules  by  holding  public  meetings  over  the  country; 
it  was  but  a  means  to  a  good  end,  and  her  desires  were 
fulfilled  in  February  1874  when  the  Ministry  went  to 
the  country  and  were  hopelessly  beaten. 

So  once  more  Disraeli  stepped  under  the  halo  of  his 
ambition  !  He  had  conquered  the  country,  and  now 
he  set  himself  to  conquer  the  Queen.  Two  years 
earlier  Lady  Beaconsfield  had  died,  and  Lord  Ronald 


FAMILY   JARS  191 

Gower  tells  how  at  Hughenden  Disraeli  spoke  very 
despondingly  of  her  during  her  illness — 

'  She  suffers,'  he  groaned,  '  so  dreadfully  at  times. 
We  have  been  married  thirty-three  years,  and  she  has 
never  given  me  a  dull  moment.'  It  was  quite  touch- 
ing to  see  his  distress.  His  face,  generally  so  emotion- 
less, was  filled  with  a  look  of  suffering  and  woe  that 
nothing  but  the  sorrow  of  her  he  so  truly  loved  could 
cause  on  that  impassive  countenance." 

When  Lady  Beaconsfield  died  her  husband  refused 
all  state  and  honour  for  her,  and  turned  his  back 
upon  the  frightful  English  usage  in  the  matter  of 
funerals.  At  1.30  the  coffin  was  removed  from  the 
saloon  of  Hughenden  Manor  to  a  low  bier,  covered 
with  a  black  velvet  pall  and  carried  across  the 
grounds  by  the  cottage  tenants  of  the  estate  to  the 
church. 

This  sorrow  drew  the  Queen  closer  to  the  politician, 
and  their  friendship  strengthened  during  the  next  few 
years.  Disraeli  had  no  illusions  about  her  Majesty's 
powers.  He  wasted  no  time  in  showing  her  both  sides 
of  a  question  and  inviting  her  to  think  for  herself. 
"  Gladstone,"  he  said,  "  treated  the  Queen  like  a  public 
department;  I  treat  her  like  a  woman." 

In  politics  he  was  quite  ready  to  keep  the  people 
quiet  with  small  concessions,  or  even  to  allow  them 
some  big  measure  of  domestic  reform,  provided  he 
could  also  carry  on  his  schemes  of  enlargement  and 
work  to  secure  a  brilliant  all-world  glory  for  himself. 
Thus  with  him  the  Queen  felt  safe  both  at  home  and 
abroad ;  she  revelled  in  the  "  strong  Conservative 


Government,"  and  in  the  idea  that  it  proved  England 
to  be  inimical  to  Radicalism. 

Disraeli's  first  step  towards  the  full  winning  of 
Victoria's  heart  was  to  bring  in  the  Public  Worship 
Regulation  Act,  aimed  against  Ritualism.  This  de- 
lighted her  with  her  abhorrence  of  High  Church, 
and  that  Gladstone  agreed  with  that  form  of  worship 
may  have  added  somewhat  to  her  pleasure.  The  Bill 
passed,  and  almost  straightway  became  a  dead  letter. 
It  is  somewhat  amusing  that  Sir  Sidney  Lee  reports 
the  Queen  as  being  extremely  disgusted  with  Glad- 
stone for  opposing  the  next  measure,  the  Scotch 
Church  Patronage  Bill,  for  she  herself  had  opposed 
resolutely,  thirty  years  earlier,  a  scheme  of  the  sort 
when  initiated  by  the  Free  Kirkers.  Now,  as  Philip 
Clayden  said,  "  it  had  become  a  reactionary  measure 
by  being  brought  into  the  world  a  generation  behind 
its  time,"  and  could  have  been  of  as  little  benefit  as 
the  Bill  against  High  Church.  Of  Gladstone's  speech 
in  the  House  against  it,  Victoria  said  petulantly,  "  He 
could  so  easily  have  stayed  away !  "  Surely  it  was 
evil  of  Gladstone  in  the  Opposition  to  oppose  the 
leader  of  the  Government ! 

Though  Victoria  had  not  made  many  concessions 
to  the  public  desire  to  see  her,  there  had  been  a  few 
in  the  occasional  holding  of  a  Court  or  a  drawing- 
room,  and  an  equally  occasional  one  or  two  nights  at 
the  Palace.  In  1873  she  had  also  entertained  the 
Shah  of  Persia  at  Buckingham  Palace  in  solitary 
grandeur  and  at  Windsor  in  royal  style. 

The  people  who  had  heard  that  he  was  bringing 


FAMILY   JARS  193 

,£5,000,000  with  him,  and  had  also  heard  of  his  harem, 
his  jewels  and  his  primitive  ways,  thronged  the  streets, 
swarmed  over  the  houses,  and  shouted  themselves 
hoarse  when  he  drove  by,  and  then  amused  themselves 
with  laughter  and  songs  about,  "  Have  you  seen  the 
Shah,  Smoking  a  cigar,"  etc.  The  great  people  took 
their  cue  from  the  Queen,  but  they  had  to  endure 
insults  which  she  did  not  hear.  That  the  Shah 
thought  them  compliments  did  not  make  them  sweeter. 
He  did  not  admire  the  English  ladies,  who  were  too 
thin,  and  it  is  told  that  when  he  saw  a  picture  of  the 
Fat  Woman  in  a  show,  he  said  she  was  the  most 
beautiful  woman  he  had  seen  in  all  his  journeys,  and 
wanted  to  buy  her.  The  public  said — with  how  much 
truth  I  do  not  know — that  when  he  had  chosen  the 
woman  he  thought  most  beautiful,  or  rather  passable, 
in  any  assembly,  he  showed  his  approbation  by  spit- 
ting on  her  gown;  until  the  knowledge  had  to  be 
gently  conveyed  that  the  English  did  not  do  these 
things. 

Men-of-war  met  him  at  sea,  Princes  Arthur  and 
Alfred  met  him  at  Dover  and  the  Prince  of  Wales 
escorted  him  from  Charing  Cross  to  Buckingham 
Palace.  When  he  went  to  Windsor,  which  he  did 
three  times,  Leopold,  "who  does  not  go  anywhere 
away  from  the  Queen,"  as  the  Shah  wrote  in  his  diary, 
was  always  on  the  platform.  The  day  of  his  arrival, 
being  angry  with  his  Greek  secretary,  he  ordered  him 
to  be  executed,  and  it  was  in  vain  that  his  Grand  Vizier 
and  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  protested.  He  was  implac- 
able, until  at  last  he  was  told  that  the  offender  was 


194     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

safely  killed  and  buried  in  the  palace  garden.  The 
man  was  secretly  sent  to  Paris  to  await  the  return  of 
his  master  there,  and  one  wonders  if  he  eventually  got 
off  with  his  life. 

The  Shah  was  invited  to  the  houses  of  great  noble- 
men, and  on  seeing  Trentham  Castle,  the  Duke  of 
Sutherland's  place,  he  turned  to  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
asking  if,  when  he  came  to  the  throne,  he  would  not 
have  the  Duke  beheaded.  To  which  the  Prince 
replied  that  there  were  so  many  great  and  rich  nobles 
in  England  that  he  could  not  undertake  such  a  clear- 
ance. He  was  also  privileged  to  see  the  mausoleum 
at  Frogmore,  upon  which  he  wrote  that  he  shed  tears 
and  felt  very  sad. 

One  of  the  amusing  incidents  of  his  stay — included 
in  the  Personal  Recollections  of  C.  K.  Tuckerman, 
an  American' — took  place  at  Chiswick  Gardens,  a 
house  which  the  Prince  of  Wales  then  rented  from  the 
Duke  of  Devonshire,  and  where  the  Queen  went  to 
meet  him.  For  its  comedy  of  state  etiquette  during 
Victorian  times,  it  is  as  delicately  ironic  as  the  incident 
of  Missi  Matty's  new  carpet  in  Cranford.  There 
were  present  every  member  of  the  royal  family,  also 
the  Russian  Tsarevitch  and  his  consort,  whose  visit 
to  the  heir  apparent  was  quite  overshadowed  by  the 
potentate. 

"  In  the  middle  of  the  lawn,  in  front  of  the  garden 
walks,  two  large  canvas  marquees  or  pavilions  had 
been  erected,  facing  each  other  at  the  distance  of  a 
few  yards,  between  which  extended  a  broad  strip  of 
crimson  carpet.  Over  one  of  the  pavilions  floated  the 


FAMILY   JARS  195 

banner  of  England,  and  over  the  other  the  rising  sun 
and  royal  arms  of  Persia.  It  looked  like  a  scene 
upon  the  stage,  and  the  performance  that  followed 
heightened  the  theatrical  effect.  Perhaps  if  I  present 
the  spectacle  in  a  dramatic  way  it  will  be  more  vivid 
to  the  reader. 

"  SCENE  I. — The  Queen  arrives  upon  the  grounds, 
with  her  usual  punctuality,  accompanied  by  her  suite. 
Taking  the  arm  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  her  Majesty 
passes  down  the  line  of  guests,  graciously  acknowledg- 
ing their  silent  greetings,  and,  proceeding  to  her 
pavilion,  disappears  therein.  A  long  pause  ensues, 
owing  to  the  tardy  arrival  of  the  Shah,  who,  with 
Oriental  moderation,  seems  in  no  haste  to  put  in  an 
appearance.  Meanwhile  the  spectators  keep  their 
eyes  fixed  on  the  canvas  that  conceals  their  Sovereign, 
as  if,  like  the  palaces  of  Aladdin,  it  may  vanish  into 
air  should  their  attention  be  for  an  instant  diverted 
from  it. 

"SCENE  II. — Arrival  of  his  Majesty  of  Persia  and 
suite,  the  latter  consisting  of  half  a  dozen  royal  high- 
nesses and  as  many  excellencies.  He,  in  turn,  takes 
the  arm  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  is  conducted  to 
his  own  pavilion,  into  which  he  disappears. 

"  SCENE  III. — Reappearance  of  the  Shah  at  the 
opening  of  his  pavilion,  from  whence  he  walks  with 
measured  steps  down  the  crimson  carpet,  and,  entering 
the  Queen's  marquee,  disappears  from  view. 


196 

"  SCENE  IV. — Reappearance  of  his  Majesty,  who 
retraces  his  steps,  and  again  disappears  beneath  the 
royal  canvas. 

"  SCENE  V. — Reappearance  of  the  Queen  at  the 
opening  of  her  pavilion,  who  proceeds  to  return  the 
royal  visit,  and  disappears  from  view. 

"  SCENE  VI. — Her  Majesty  emerges  from  the  Shah's 
pavilion,  and,  retracing  her  steps  to  her  own,  disap- 
pears from  view. 

"SCENE  VI I. — Simultaneous  reappearance  of  the 
two  sovereigns  at  the  openings  of  their  respective 
marquees,  whence  they  advance  towards  each  other 
with  mathematical  precision  until  they  meet  in  the 
exact  middle  of  the  strip  of  crimson.  Here,  for  a 
moment,  the  Shah  seems  at  a  loss  to  know  what  next 
is  expected  from  him,  and  stands  like  an  awkward 
actor  who  has  forgotten  his  part;  but  her  Majesty  sets 
him  right  by  gracefully  taking  his  arm  and  walking 
away  with  her  illustrious  visitor,  nntil  lost  to  view  down 
the  long  avenue  of  ancestral  trees." 

Which  of  the  two  most  enjoyed  this  punctiliousness, 
the  Queen  or  the  Shah,  and  did  it  satisfy  a  social  need 
or  was  it  engaged  in  for  the  pleasure  of  the  assembled 
multitude  ? 

When  the  Shah  left  our  shores  he  noted  in  his 
diary,  "  It  was  evident  that  the  people  of  England 
were  all  sorry  and  grieved  in  their  hearts  at  our 
departure." 


FAMILY   JARS  197 

The  visit  of  the  Tsarevitch  was  not  without  mean- 
ing, and  had  been  prefaced  by  the  diplomatic  but 
secret  mission  to  Victoria  of  Count  Schouvaloff  earlier 
in  the  year.  To  both  she  was  very  amiable,  for  the 
suggestion  was  a  marriage  between  the  Grand  Duchess 
Marie  and  Prince  Alfred,  Duke  of  Edinburgh.  When 
it  was  announced  every  one  seemed  pleased,  excepting 
Mr.  Peter  Taylor  and  eighteen  members  of  Parlia- 
ment, who  voted  against  the  second  reading  of  the 
Bill  for  allowing  Alfred  an  additional  £10,000  a  year. 
When  this  was  carried  in  July,  Gladstone  laid  stress 
on  the  Tsar's  promise  to  allow  his  daughter  £6000 
yearly  and  a  pension  of  £30,000 ;  but  the  report  went 
that  she  would  receive  £20,000  as  an  annuity  and  a 
dowry  of  £200,000,  which  was  certainly  more  likely. 
A  complaint  was  made  that  the  Bill  had  been  intro- 
duced very  late  in  the  session,  and  Gladstone,  usually 
a  very  truthful  man,  excused  this  by  saying  that  it 
was  a  case  of  deep  love  on  both  sides,  and  lapsing 
into  poetry,  continued — 

"  Does  my  honourable  friend  think  that  the  senti- 
ments of  love  can  be  restrained  ? 

'Love,  free  as  air,  at  sight  of  human  ties 
Spreads  his  light  wings  and  in  a  moment  flies.' 

These  things  are  not  under  my  control  with  regard 
to  royal  persons  or  any  one  else.  I  cannot  fix  the  time 
at  which  the  invader  should  be  allowed  to  occupy 
their  hearts,  and  to  bring  to  an  issue  these  great 
questions." 

The  people,  who  had  been  solemnly  assured  that 
the  union  was  in  no  way  prompted  by  policy,  were 


198    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

pleased  with  it,  for  they  saw  that  it  might  prove  a 
safeguard  against  quarrels  with  Russia.  They  were 
tired  of  the  constant  scares  about  that  country,  as  well 
as  doubtful  of  the  British  policy  of  making  a  pet  of 
the  Turk.  They  were  also  glad  that  a  rich  bride  had 
been  chosen  rather  than  some  unknown  German. 

The  marriage  took  place  in  January  1874,  and  when 
the  bride  and  bridegroom  came  home  to  London  on 
a  cold,  snowy  March  day,  Queen  Victoria  did  honour 
where  honour  was  expected,  and  went  to  meet  her  new 
daughter-in-law,  driving  with  her  through  the  streets. 
"  How  she  and  the  Princess  did  shake  their  heads 
incessantly  right  and  left,  as  if  they  had  indiarubber 
necks,  and  that  for  miles !  "  commented  one  whose 
name  I  have  lost. 

A  weekly  paper,  The  Hornet,  much  in  vogue  just 
then,  hailed  Marie  as  a  Russian  fairy,  saying,  "  She 
has  burst  upon  the  Court  like  golden  sunshine  in  a 
fusty,  dusty  room,"  and  further  declared  that  Victoria 
could  not  resist  her,  and  allowed  her  to  dance  at  will 
into  her  private  rooms  without  announcement.  Under 
this  influence,  "we  hope  to  see  the  Queen  out  of 
mourning,  heading  a  country  dance  on  the  lawn  of 
Buckingham  Palace  with  some  gay  gallant  like  Dizzy." 

This  may  give  some  readers  a  shock,  but  they  must 
remember  that  the  widowed  Queen  had  already  in  the 
Highlands  danced  with  a  much  less  courtier-like 
person. 

Speculation  was  rife  about  the  Russian  bride,  for  it 
was  thought  that  she  would  not  comprehend  or  agree 
to  "the  German  ceremonial  too  long  observed  by  the 


FAMILY   JARS  199 

royal  family,"  that  she  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
that  saving  system  which  the  people  insisted — in  spite 
of  all  denial — was  the  Germanic  attribute  of  their  liege 
lady,  the  Queen. 

The  sad  thing  for  the  Princess  was  that  she  had 
married  the  most  careful  and  saving  member  of  the 
Queen's  family,  and  one  who,  wanting  the  kindliness 
and  graciousness  of  his  elder  brother,  was  distinctly 
unpopular,  also  that  he  had  an  elder  brother.  Albert 
Edward,  in  spite  of  his  sins,  was  a  favourite  with  the 
public,  while  it  would  have  been  a  rash  person  who 
spoke  evil  of  Alexandra.  The  Schleswig-Holstein 
question,  her  beauty,  and  later  her  kindliness  and  her 
cheerful  shouldering  of  the  work  of  an  uncrowned 
queen,  had  made  such  an  impression  upon  the  vulner- 
able heart  of  John  Bull  that  he  went  so  far  as  to  say 
that  she  retained  for  the  royal  family  "the  personal 
popularity  which  it  had  lost  through  the  nun-like 
retirement  of  Queen  Victoria." 

It  was  a  matter  of  public  remark  that  at  this  time 
there  were  two  Courts,  the  holiday  seeking  Court  of 
the  Queen  and  the  social  Court  of  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
also  that  the  Queen  and  Prince  scarcely  ever  appeared 
anywhere  together,  and  the  one  did  not  know  the  plans 
of  the  other.  Thus  on  a  memorable  day  when  the 
Queen  emerged  into  the  view  of  her  people,  by  going 
to  open  Victoria  Park  in  the  East  End,  the  Prince 
was  to  have  been  installed  Grand  Master  of  the 
United  Order  of  Knights  Templars  and  St.  John,  at 
Willis's  Rooms.  To  avoid  the  gossip  which  might 
have  been  produced  by  the  two  reports  appearing  in 


200    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

the  same  morning's  paper,  the  Prince  asked  postpone- 
ment of  his  ceremony  for  a  week,  and  went  to  stay 
with  Lord  Carrington. 

Princess  Marie  Alexandrovna  did  not  understand 
the  intricacies  of  English  Court  and  social  life.  She, 
being  an  Imperial  Highness,  felt  that  she  had  done 
some  condescension  in  marrying  into  the  family  of  a 
mere  queen,  and  she  was  certain  that  her  rank  would 
ensure  her  a  place  second  only  to  the  Queen  herself. 
That  Alexandra,  the  daughter  of  the  king  of  tiny 
Denmark,  should  dream  of  taking  precedence  soon 
became  a  very  sore  point.  So  she  constantly  tried  to 
upset  that  delicate  system  which  aims  at  reducing 
social  rank  to  definite  law,  but  she  might  just  as  well 
have  demanded  the  obeisance  of  the  sun  and  moon. 
Partly  realizing  her  failure,  she  haughtily  declared 
that  she  would  not  go  to  Court  at  all,  and  sulkily 
retired  after  calling  upon  her  father  for  help. 

The  Times  announced  with  dignity  that  as  the 
Princess  was  enceinte  she  had  retired  from  society. 
The  Tsar,  however,  promptly  came  to  succour  his 
neglected  daughter,  and  stayed  a  week,  Marie  being 
constantly  by  his  side.  At  a  state  ball  held  by  the 
Prince  of  Wales  at  Buckingham  Palace  in  his  honour, 
the  two  were  inseparable  all  the  evening,  and  seemed 
equally  amused  when  the  younger  members  of  the 
royal  family,  led  by  the  Marquis  of  Lome  in  Highland 
costume,  bare-kneed  and  debonair,  danced  a  Scotch 
reel.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Tsar  did  his  best 
to  adjust  the  grievance,  and  after  his  departure  his 
daughter's  name  was  published  in  the  Court  Circular 


FAMILY    JARS  201 

next  to  that  of  the  Princess  of  Wales,  as  Her  Royal 
and  Imperial  Highness  the  Duchess  of  Edinburgh  and 
Grand  Duchess  of  Russia !  But  Marie  did  not  take 
with  kindly  heart  to  the  knowledge  that  as  wife  of  a 
younger  son  she  could  not  stand  first,  and  the  people, 
knowing  this,  never  again  saw  her  in  the  glamour  which 
had  surrounded  her  coming. 

There  was  another  person  who  might,  with  justice, 
have  asked  a  nobler  place  in  the  Court  circle,  and 
that  was  the  Marquis  of  Lome,  to  whom  was  given 
no  official  recognition,  and  who,  though  thought  fit 
to  marry  an  English  princess,  was  not  thought  fit  to 
sit  next  her  at  table,  or  with  her  to  enter  the  doorway 
reserved  for  royalty.  The  result  was  that  Princess 
Louise  was  often  absent  from  royal  functions,  and 
later  often  absent  from  her  husband's  side.  It  was 
odd  that  the  Queen,  who  had  suffered  bitterly  when 
abroad  from  Germanic  etiquette  on  this  point,  should 
in  her  own  Court  have  allowed  her  own  daughter  to 
experience  the  same  discomfort.  However,  it  was  the 
same  intricate  machinery  at  work,  and  heaven  knows 
what  nobleman  might  not  have  been  annoyed  if  Lome 
had  been  treated  with  respect. 


PART   II 
IMPERIALISM 


CHAPTER    XIII 

YACHTS  IN  THE  SOLENT 

"The  Mistletoe  crept  along  like  a  snail, 
For  the  wind  scarce  bellied  a  single  sail; 
The  steamer  was  going  at  sixteen  knots, 
For  the  Queen  was  dying  to  see  her  Scots ; 
And  several  lubbers  of  high  degree 
Were  on  her  bridge,  but  they  didn't  see 
That  they'd  sealed  the  helpless  Mistletoe's  fate» 
If  they  kept  their  course  at  such  a  rate. 
Oh  !  the  Mistletoe  bow  !  " 

'  Edward  the  Seventh.' 

BY  the  year  1875  the  Queen  was  fairly  happy  in  her 
family  and  quite  happy  in  her  state  relationships; 
indeed,  she  was  more  at  peace  than  she  had  been  for 
a  long  time.  Then  into  the  midst  of  her  content  came 
a  bolt  from  the  blue,  at  least  so  it  seemed,  though  the 
real  cause  was  her  royal  —  royal  is  not  quite  the  right 
word,  however — appreciation  of  her  dignity,  which 
allowed  her  to  place  herself  above  all  law  and  rule. 

When  she  drove  or  when  she  was  on  the  sea  she 
demanded  speed,  speed,  and  yet  more  speed,  and  she 
could  not  conceive  the  right  of  any  one  to  stand  in 
her  way.  In  the  first  years  of  her  reign  she  rode  at 
a  gallop  through  the  roads  and  parks ;  on  her  first  visit 
to  Edinburgh  her  cortege  dashed  through  the  streets 
at  a  gallop,  to  the  anger  of  the  inhabitants;  in  1848  her 

yacht  Fairy  was  bearing  her  over  the  Solent  at  its 

205 


206    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

greatest  speed,  when  it  ran  down  a  boat  full  of  people, 
four  of  whom  were  drowned.  Now,  twenty-seven  years 
later,  the  thing  occurred  again.  In  the  first  accident 
the  yacht's  commander  was  Lord  Adolphus  Fitzclar- 
ence,  son  of  William  IV  and  Dorothy  Jordan ;  in  the 
second  Prince  Leiningen,  son  of  Victoria's  half-sister 
Feodore,  was  the  responsible  person,  his  under  officer 
being  a  Captain  Welsh. 

During  August  each  year  the  Solent  became  the 
happy  sailing  ground  for  little  vessels.  A  Mr.  E.  S. 
Heywood,  a  visitor  to  Ryde  with  his  wife  and  her  sisters 
had,  with  the  latter,  the  two  Misses  Peel,  been  for  a 
two  days'  cruise  on  his  schooner  yacht.  A  rule  of  the 
sea  provides  that  a  steamer  gives  place  to  a  sailing 
vessel  when  on  the  starboard  tack,  for  obvious  reasons, 
and  Heywood's  ship,  the  Mistletoe,  was  keeping 
steadily  but  slowly,  for  there  was  no  wind,  on  its 
course,  when  the  Queen's  yacht,  the  Alberta,  was  seen 
to  be  coming  towards  them  at  the  rate  of  sixteen  or 
seventeen  knots  an  hour.  No  one  dreamed  of  an  acci- 
dent, but  Prince  Leiningen — if  he  was  anything  but  a 
mere  figurehead — evidently  thought  the  yacht  would 
save  itself  somehow,  and  did  not  attempt  to  alter  his 
ship's  course  until  he  was  within  twenty  yards  of  the 
Mistletoe.  The  latter  boat  tried,  too  late,  to  avert 
collision,  and  it  was  rammed  nearly  amidships. 

Commander  Fullerton  of  the  Alberta  and  some 
sailors  plunged  into  the  sea  to  save  people,  but 
Leiningen  at  once  ordered  his  vessel  to  be  backed, 
which  caused  the  Mistletoe  to  sink  in  three  minutes. 
He  did  this,  he  said,  to  prevent  spars  falling  upon  the 


YACHTS  IN  THE  SOLENT  207 

Alberta,  and  so  even  when  the  accident  had  happened, 
lives  which  might  have  been  saved  were  lost  unneces- 
sarily, for  the  sinking  of  the  Mistletoe  caused  the  very 
thing  which  the  thoughtless  German  wished  to  avoid, 
in  that  it  dragged  the  mainmast  and  rigging  across  the 
Alberta's  bowsprit.  These  in  their  fall  carried  Miss 
Peel,  the  master,  and  Captain  Fullerton  down  with 
the  vessel.  Fullerton  rose  at  once,  the  master  was 
picked  up  in  a  drowning  state  and  died  in  half  an  hour; 
Miss  Peel's  body  was  found  entangled  in  the  rigging; 
a  dead  sailor  was  also  picked  up  some  days  later,  and 
two  others  were  injured. 

Victoria  stood  on  the  bridge  of  the  Alberta,  wringing 
her  hands,  through  this  dreadful  scene,  and — as  was 
expressly  stated  in  the  papers — giving  orders  that 
every  effort  should  be  made  to  save  the  persons  on 
board !  but  Captain  Fullerton  and  the  sailors  who 
plunged  did  not  wait  for  orders,  royal  or  otherwise. 
The  reports  also  laid  great  stress  upon  the  fact  that 
her  Majesty  spoke  to  the  Miss  Peel  who  was  saved 
and  made  constant  inquiries  after  the  injured,  and  that 
on  reaching  Gosport  she  gave  orders  that  no  efforts 
were  to  be  spared  on  behalf  of  the  sufferers,  and  every 
attention  was  to  be  paid  to  their  wants.  Had  she  not 
done  so  it  would  have  been  monstrous,  but  to  report 
such  natural  acts  was  to  reduce  a  tragedy  to  the  limits 
of  the  Court  Circular. 

The  Alberta  was  half  an  hour  late  in  arriving  at 
Gosport,  where  anxiety  was  felt  for  its  safety,  so 
punctual  was  the  Queen,  and  when  it  drew  up  in 
Clarence  Yard  it  was  noted  that  its  bowsprit  was 


•208     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

carried  away  and  the  bows  broken.  The  royal  family 
immediately  went  to  the  train,  but  her  Majesty  was 
very  anxious  and  dubious  about  starting,  as  she  feared 
that,  the  train  being  behind  time,  some  accident  might 
happen.  However,  she  was  assured  that  a  late  train 
was  always  looked  for  more  anxiously  than  one  running 
punctually,  and  that  every  precaution  would  be  taken.1 

This  accident  made  a  great  sensation,  which  re- 
curred for  months,  revived  by  Coroners,  Admiralty 
and  Parliamentary  Inquiries.  But  the  sensation  was 
not  so  much  horror  at  the  accident — accidents  had 
happened  before — but  horror  at  the  indifference  shown 
publicly  by  the  Queen.  Never  once  was  a  word  or 
sign  allowed  to  reach  her  people  that  she  felt  sorrow 
or  wished  to  make  reparation.  She  rode  over  her  sub- 
jects and  passed  on  to  the  north,  and  papers  reported 
the  ordinary,  trivial  occurrences  taking  place  which 
were  usual  at  Balmoral.  She  may  have  been  pros- 
trated with  grief,  her  nerves  may  have  been  shaken  to 
pieces;  if  so,  no  one  heard  of  it,  and  she  was  judged 
according  to  what  people  knew.  Her  only  activity 
was  displayed  in  trying  to  save  her  servants  from  blame 
and  in  endeavouring  to  fasten  the  fault  upon  the 
victims  of  the  disaster. 

There  were  several  coroner's  inquests,  but  informa- 
tion about  one  will  suffice,  though  in  all  attempts  were 
made  to  suppress  free  disclosures.  Leiningen  was 
called  as  a  witness  at  the  first,  and  refused  to  answer 
a  question  until  he  had  read  aloud  a  letter  he  had 
received  from  his  queen-aunt,  which  frankly  condoled 

1  Railway  Reminiscences.     By  Superintendent  G.  P.  Neele. 


YACHTS  IN  THE  SOLENT  209 

with  him  in  this  trouble  and  expressed  her  Majesty's 
thorough  confidence  in  his  ability  and  carefulness.  It 
was  evidently  intended  to  impress  coroner  and  jury  in 
his  favour. 

Yet  he  had  to  admit  that  the  Alberta  was  going  at  a 
speed  which  was  dangerous  in  so  crowded  a  sea,  that 
it  was  an  unbreakable  rule  that  a  steamer  must  give 
way  to  a  sailing  vessel  on  the  starboard  tack,  and  that 
had  the  Alberta's  helm  been  put  to  starboard  she  would 
have  passed  at  the  stern  of  the  Mistletoe;  also  that  no 
order  was  given  to  alter  the  Alberta's  course  until  she 
was  within  fifteen  or  twenty  yards  of  the  yacht.  One 
of  the  quartermasters  declared  that  the  Alberta  had 
got  into  such  a  position  that  she  would  have  run  the 
schooner  down  in  any  case. 

The  commander  of  the  Victoria  and  Albert,  which 
was  following  the  Alberta,  gave  curious  evidence.  He 
spoke  of  "the  speed  at  which  the  royal  yachts  are 
obliged  to  go,"  and  on  being  questioned  as  to  his 
meaning,  replied — 

"  Her  Majesty,  having  the  fastest  yachts  built  for 
the  special  purpose  of  passing  to  her  residence  at  the 
Isle  of  Wight,  she  is  desirous  to  make  the  passage  as 
rapidly  as  possible.  The  officers  conducting  the  royal 
yacht  were  at  the  same  time  to  take  every  precaution 
to  ensure  the  safety  of  the  vessel  at  the  speed  at  which 
it  may  be  travelling.  It  is  the  wish  of  her  Majesty  to 
travel  fast.  I  do  not  wish  to  convey  the  meaning  that 
royal  yachts  are  to  run  over  everything  to  oblige  others 
to  give  way.  Every  care  is  taken.  They  are  built  fast, 
and  what  does  the  Queen  have  fast  vessels  for — surely 


210    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

not  to  travel  at  four  miles  an  hour !  Sixteen  knots  is 
the  usual  speed,  or  faster  if  they  can  go.  It  is  like  a 
railway  train.  If  a  man  steps  on  the  line  just  in  front 
of  the  train  the  driver  could  not  prevent  an  accident." 
Such  a  statement  showed  the  perversity  of  reasoning 
which  justified  the  matter  to  the  royal  servants;  for 
the  only  likeness  between  the  yacht  and  the  train  was 
in  the  use  of  steam,  the  train  having  no  liberty  of  move- 
ment. But  beyond  that  was  the  absolute  belief  that 
if  the  Queen  wished  to  make  the  Solent  and  the  bays 
near  Ryde  dangerous  she  had  a  perfect  right  to  do  so. 
One  juror  tried  to  get  a  definite  opinion  from  Mr. 
Heywood,  who  had  been  picked  up  nearly  drowned,  as 
to  where  the  blame  lay,  and  turning  to  the  coroner,  the 
latter  asked — 

"  Is  it  fair  for  me  to  say  that  I  think  the  greatest 
blame  attaches  to  those  on  board  her  Majesty's  yacht  ? " 
The  coroner  decided  that  it  was  unfair. 
It  was  declared  in  Parliament,  in  April  1875,  that  one 
of  the  jurors  was  a  friend  of  Captain  Welsh,  and  the 
other  was  so  dependent  on  the  dockyard  that  he  did  not 
dare  to  agree  in  a  verdict  hostile  to  the  officers.  It 
was  further  asserted  that  an  officer  called  on  the  coroner 
and  urged  the  inclusion  of  these  two  men  on  the  jury. 
Whether  this  was  true  or  not,  the  two  men  stood  out 
against  the  verdict  of  manslaughter  brought  in  by  the 
other  ten,  and  the  jury  had  to  be  dismissed.  The 
second  jury,  knowing  what  was  required,  brought  it  in 
as  accident,  adding  that  the  officers  of  the  royal  yacht 
ordered  excessive  speed,  and  that  their  watch  was  ill 
kept.  On  leaving  the  court  at  the  end  of  the  inquest 


YACHTS  IN  THE  SOLENT  211 

the  officers  were  mobbed  by  an  excited  crowd  and  had 
to  be  given  police  protection. 

The  Admiralty  Court  of  Inquiry  was  held  in 
camera,  the  only  thing  known  by  the  public  being  that 
Leiningen  was  pronounced  blameless  and  Welsh  was 
reprimanded.  At  once  the  angry  people  declared 
Victoria  had  taken  means  to  protect  her  nephew. 
Certainly  the  relationship  had  stood  him  in  good  stead. 

The  Queen  was  injudicious  enough  to  have  a  letter 
sent  directly  after  the  Gosport  verdict  to  Lord  Exeter, 
President  of  the  Royal  Victoria  Yacht  Club  at  Cowes, 
which  ran  as  follows — 

"  It  has  appeared  in  the  course  of  the  recent  inquiry 
at  Gosport  that  it  is  a  common  practice  for  private 
yachts  to  approach  the  royal  yacht  when  her  Majesty 
is  on  board,  from  motives  of  loyalty  or  curiosity.  It 
is  evident  that  such  a  proceeding  must  at  all  times  be 
attended  with  considerable  risks,  and  in  summer,  when 
the  Solent  is  crowded  with  vessels,  such  manoeuvres 
are  extra  dangerous.  The  Queen  has  therefore  com- 
manded me  to  request  that  you  will  kindly  assist  her 
Majesty  in  making  it  known  to  all  owners  of  yachts 
how  earnestly  the  Queen  hopes  that  this  practice,  which 
may  lead  to  lamentable  results,  should  be  discon- 
tinued." 

This  letter  further  inflamed  feeling  against  the 
Queen,  for  it  was  taken  to  mean  that  she  blamed  Mr. 
Heywood,  though  it  had  been  shown  that  he  and  his 
party  were  at  tea  in  the  saloon  until  there  was  a  cry 
of  danger  and  were  not  royalty-hunting.  It  was  also 
taken  to  mean  that  Victoria  did  not  intend  to  lessen 


212     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

her  speed.  The  members  of  the  club  were  furious  and 
instructed  their  secretary  to  reply  that,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  club,  "the  royal  yachts  in  the  Solent  violated 
without  restraint  the  ordinary  rules  of  navigation." 

Punch  apologized  for  the  Queen's  letter  by  saying 
that  half  of  it  had  been  lost,  and  that  in  the  missing 
part  the  Queen  had  commanded  General  Ponsonby  to 
remind  all  officers  of  her  ships  to  keep  a  careful  look- 
out, and  never  under  any  circumstances  to  go  at  exces- 
sive speed.  Above  all,  it  was  to  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  maritime  rule  of  the  road  between  steam  and  sailing 
vessels  admitted  of  no  exception,  whatever  be  the  dig- 
nity of  the  flag  or  the  rank  of  the  passenger  on  board 
the  steamer. 

It  was  stated  that  Victoria  had  compensated  the 
widows  of  the  drowned  men,  and  it  is  impossible  not 
to  hope  earnestly  that  it  was  so,  for  she  had  great 
sympathy  with  those  who  lost  by  death.  The  news- 
papers asserted,  however,  that  it  was  not  true,  that  she 
had  not  given  a  penny,  but  that  it  was  the  Admiralty 
which  had  allotted  £400  to  one  and  £500  to  the  other, 
on  condition  that  these  terms  were  accepted  as  a  full 
discharge  of  all  claims.  Heywood,  it  was  said,  had  set 
an  example  of  patience,  self-control  and  personal  liber- 
ality which  put  royalty  and  officialdom  to  the  blush,  for 
he  had  paid  his  crew  their  wages  in  full  and  had  com- 
pensated them  for  their  losses.  He  received  £3000 
from  the  Admiralty,  which  could  not,  however,  have 
compensated  him  for  the  loss  of  his  schooner.  One 
outspoken  paper  asked  the  following  questions  :  "  Has 
the  Queen  sent  Heywood  a  cheque  for  the  loss  of  his 


YACHTS  IN  THE   SOLENT  213 

yacht?  Has  she  given  the  crew  a  single  sixpence? 
Has  she  done  what  would  have  been  more  queenly 
still,  ordered  a  new  yacht  for  Mr.  Heywood?  Has 
she  given  orders  that  the  speed  of  her  yacht  should  be 
lessened?  Has  she  reprimanded  her  officers?  She 
has  done  none  of  these  things,  but  has  done  what 
would  influence  a  verdict  and  has  insulted  the  subject 
who  has  been  so  generously  forbearing." 

Very  bitter  was  the  feeling  against  the  Queen — a 
bitterness  caused  by  her  resolute  silence,  by  her  refusal 
to  acknowledge  that  she  or  those  about  her  could  be 
wrong,  and  the  indirect  attempt  to  put  blame  on  other 
shoulders.  It  all  came  back  to  the  old  cause  of  dis- 
sension between  her  and  her  people,  the  difference  in 
the  point  of  view  concerning  what  was  royal,  the  differ- 
ence between  the  German  view  and  the  English,  the 
difference  between  the  sovereign  who  felt  personally 
above  law,  and  the  ideal  sovereign  who  was  the  proud 
upholder  of  law  in  every  way  to  her  people. 


QUEEN-EMPRESS 

"  In  the  fulness  of  years  and  of  successful  management  the 
Lady  of  the  House  was  buried,  and  her  memory  is  cherished 
still — but  it  is  the  memory  of  the  manager  of  the  '  Queen's  Head ; ' 
and  not  of  the  '  Empress's  Crown.'  Under  the  former  she  had 
won  her  high  repute;  the  other  could  add  nothing  to  it." — The 
Blot  on  the  Queen's  Head. 

"Those  who  were  present  at  dinner  when  Disraeli  proposed 
the  Queen's  health  as  Empress  of  India,  with  a  little  speech  as 
flowery  as  the  oration  of  a  Maharajah,  used  to  describe  the 
pretty  smiling  bow,  half  a  curtsey,  which  the  Queen  made  as  he 
sat  down.  It  is  still  remembered  how  much  more  she  used  to 
smile  in  conversation  with  him  than  she  did  with  any  other  of 
her  ministers." — '  Quarterly  Review,'  April  1901. 

DISRAELI,  having  found  himself  obliged  to  give 
much  attention  to  domestic  affairs,  was  yet  dreaming 
of  wider  glory.  Like  Bismarck,  he  did  not  find  the 
highest  place  in  his  nation's  councils  enough;  he 
wanted  to  have  the  world  as  a  playground,  to  feel 
that  his  mind  had  influenced  great  affairs  in  great 
countries,  that  he  was  not  only  a  power  in  England, 
but  in  Europe,  in  Asia  and  in  Africa.  It  was  at  least 
a  great  ambition,  and  so  long  as  his  work  was  benefi- 
cent it  was  worthy  of  praise.  He  began  by  turning 
his  attention  to  the  truculent  country  near  home,  for 
Germany  had  been  behaving  in  a  very  suspicious  way. 

In  1874  the  Germans  were  fortifying  without  stint 

Strasburg  and  Metz,  and  adding  a  chain  of  detached 

214 


QUEEN-EMPRESS  215 

forts  of  incredible  strength.  France's  only  new  fron- 
tier work  was  Epinal,  and  later  Toul,  Paris  being 
made  the  strong  place  of  the  country.  Bismarck, 
afraid,  or  pretending  to  be  afraid,  of  France  attempt- 
ing retaliation,  was  preparing  for  a  second  Franco- 
Prussian  war. 

The  Queen  heard  much  of  what  was  going  on  in 
Berlin  and  Darmstadt  from  her  daughters  and  others, 
and  she  and  her  minister  did  their  best  to  put  an  end 
to  the  mischief.  She  implored  the  Tsar  to  do  what 
he  could  to  prevent  such  a  calamity,  and  the  Tsar 
wrote  to  Emperor  William,  which  gave  Bismarck  a 
fine  opportunity  for  uttering  spiteful  things  about 
Victoria.  She  also  wrote  personally  to  William,  and 
he,  like  the  pious  hypocrite  he  was,  answered  in  pained 
surprise  that  she  could  deem  him  capable  of  such  an 
enormity  as  plunging  Europe  into  war;  altogether,  had 
not  facts  proved  all  her  contentions,  the  Queen  might 
have  experienced  the  mortifying  feeling  of  having 
been  an  interfering  busybody  over  nothing.  But  she 
knew  and  all  the  others  knew  that  she  was  right,  and 
though,  had  Germany  been  thoroughly  prepared  and 
ready  to  surprise  the  world  with  some  false  charge 
of  French  treachery,  the  war  would  not  have  been 
delayed  because  of  Victoria,  it  is  certain  that  the 
detection  of  their  only  half-completed  plans  destroyed 
them  for  the  time. 

Disraeli's  next  good  deed  was  to  send  the  Prince 
of  Wales  to  India,  a  plan  which  synchronized  with 
some  public  criticisms  of  the  Prince,  who,  being  tired 
of  his  occupation  of  making  embroidery  for  the  royal 


216    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

reputation,  had  broken  out  in  a  new  place.  He  had 
begun  to  vary  his  public  good  deeds  by  displaying 
an  intense  interest  in  horse-racing  and  horse-rearing, 
which  shocked  the  unco'  guid.  The  Daily  News 
warned  him  against  following  the  devious  ways  of  his 
great-uncle,  "who,  if  the  first  gentleman  in  England 
in  manners,  was  also  the  most  vulgar  ruffian  in  Europe 
in  morals,"  and  advised  him — without  any  reference  to 
what  might  have  been  the  Queen's  wishes — to  fill  that 
vacant  place  of  confidential  agent  of  the  monarchy 
between  the  sovereign  and  her  ministers  which  so 
badly  needed  filling.  Others  followed  this  lead,  and 
Albert  Edward  was  much  in  the  position  of  the  men 
and  the  donkey,  though  he  never  allowed  himself  to 
be  driven  to  the  extremity  of  carrying  the  donkey 
himself. 

The  journey  to  India  relieved  him  from  this  affec- 
tionate care,  and  it  placed  him  for  the  first  time  before 
the  world  in  an  important  way  as  the  representative 
of  the  English  Crown.  Alexandra  had  to  stay  at 
home  in  accordance  with  the  charming  Victorian 
custom  concerning  husbands  and  wives;  and  the 
enthusiastic  Mary  of  Teck,  meeting  the  Princess, 
wrote — 

"  I  thought  her  lovelier  than  ever.  She  is  a  great 
darling,  and  I  just  adore  her.  Though  I  am  quite  in 
favour  of  Wales  going  to  India,  I  grieve  for  her  at 
the  long  separation,  and  wish  she  could  have  gone 
with  him,  if  only  for  a  part  of  the  time." 1 

1  The  Princess  Mary   Adelaide,   Duchess   of  Teck.       By   Sir 
C.  Kinloch-Cooke. 


QUEEN  EMPRESS  217 

The  Prince  and  Princess  were  at  Balmoral  just 
before  the  departure  for  the  East,  and  the  Queen 
arranged  "various  details  of  this  anxious  journey  to 
India."  In  making  his  adieux  Albert  Edward  said 
good-bye  to  Lohlein,  ex-valet  to  his  father,  also  to 
Brown;  and  the  Queen  wrote — 

"  I  saw  how  that  began  to  try  him,  and  I  felt  nearly 
upset  myself  when  Brown  shook  him  by  the  hand  and 
said,  '  God  bless  your  Royal  Highness,  and  bring  you 
safe  back!"' 

One  wonders  if  the  Prince  appreciated  the  initiative 
being  taken  by  the  servant  as  much  as  he  welcomed 
the  good  wish. 

The  Prime  Minister  followed  this  good  idea  with 
an  astute  stroke  of  business  for  which  England  should 
be  ever  grateful  to  him.  The  Khedive,  who  was  on 
the  verge  of  bankruptcy,  held  175,000  shares  out  of 
the  400,000  in  the  Suez  Canal,  which  he  offered  to 
France.  The  editor  of  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  at  the 
time  was  Frederick  Greenwood,  of  whom  George 
Meredith  once  said — 

"Greenwood  was  not  only  a  great  journalist,  he 
had  a  statesman's  head.  The  national  interests  were 
always  urgent  at  his  heart."  He  alone  knew  of  the 
Khedive's  desire,  and  promptly  communicated  it  to 
Disraeli.  The  latter  wasted  no  time,  but,  with  the 
secrecy  that  he  loved,  bought  the  shares  for  England 
for  £4,000,000.  He  then  astounded  his  Ministry  and 
the  world  with  his  announcement.  It  is  to  be  noted 
to  Mr.  Greenwood's  honour  that  he  did  not  publish 
the  startling  transaction  in  his  paper  until  it  suited 


218     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

the  Prime  Minister's  plans.  When  people  congratu- 
lated Disraeli  on  this  brilliant  stroke,  it  is  said  that 
he  wagged  his  head  in  a  mysterious  way  and  hinted 
that  this  was  only  part  of  his  scheme  and  there  was 
more  to  follow. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  session  1876  some  of  the 
"  more  "  was  disclosed  :  the  Queen  was  to  have  a  new 
title,  but  what  was  for  a  time  kept  secret;  then  at 
last  it  was  announced  that  she  was  to  be  an  empress. 
The  people  of  England  were  electrified,  unpleasantly, 
for  great  things  had  been  done  through  many  centuries 
by  kings  or  queens  of  England,  and  that  these 
honoured  names  should  be  overlaid  by  an  Eastern 
title,  cheaply  gained  at  the  word  of  a  minister  of 
Eastern  origin,  annoyed  people  of  all  politics  and 
classes.  What,  they  asked,  was  there  about  the  title 
to  make  it  desired?  Where  were  the  emperors  of 
France,  where  were  the  ancient  emperors  of  Ger- 
many, whose  regalia  still  lies  uselessly  in  the  treasure 
house  of  Austria?  The  Emperor  in  Germany  but 
not  of  Germany  got  no  reverence  in  England  for  his 
new  semi-imperialism,  the  Emperor  of  Mexico  had 
been  shot,  the  Emperor  of  Brazil  could  give  no  weight 
to  the  word,  the  emperors  of  Russia,  autocrats  as 
they  were,  had  often  to  pay  with  their  lives  for  their 
title. 

That  Disraeli,  with  a  majority  of  105,  could  do  just 
anything  he  pleased  every  one  knew,  but  the  sentiment 
of  England  was  against  the  change.  As  Sir  William 
Harcourt  said,  "  Patriotism  and  loyalty — sentiments 
the  strongest  in  our  nature — are  made  of  ancient 


QUEEN  EMPRESS  219 

associations.  It  is  for  these  things  that  great  men 
have  been  proud  to  live,  and  good  men  have  dared 
to  die." 

Every  one  quoted  the  passage  from  King  John — 

"You  were  crowned  before 
And  the  high  royalty  was  ne'er  plucked  off, 

Therefore,  to  be  possessed  with  double  pomp, 

To  guard  a  title  that  was  rich  before, 

To  gild  refined  gold,  to  paint  the  lily, 

To  throw  a  perfume  on  the  violet, 

To  smooth  the  ice,  or  add  another  hue 

Unto  the  rainbow,  or  with  taper-light 

To  seek  the  beauteous  eye  of  heaven  to  garnish, 

Is  wasteful  and  ridiculous  excess." 

Disraeli  was  depicted  as  Aladdin's  magician  offer- 
ing new  crowns  for  old;  he  was  accused  of  intending 
to  demand  that  a  sum  should  be  voted  to  white- 
wash Westminster  Abbey;  and  Victoria  was  asked 
whether  she  would  rather  be  "Victoria,  Dei  Gratia 
Angliae  Regina "  or  "  Victoria,  Disraeli  Gratia  Indiae 
Imperatrix  "  ? 

Disraeli  liked  the  jibes,  but  he  saw  that  some  limit 
must  be  put  on  the  idea,  and  promised  that  it  should 
in  no  circumstances  be  used  except  in  reference  to 
India.  Victoria  was  as  delighted  as  a  child  with  a 
new  toy.  It  would  put  her  even  with  the  Russian 
potentate  anyhow,  and  Marie  Alexandrovna  would  no 
longer  have  cause  to  regard  the  English  family  as 
inferior  to  her  own,  while  Disraeli  persuaded  her  that 
so  new  and  great  an  added  honour  would,  with  her 
poorer  and  discontented  subjects,  repair  the  torn 
prestige  of  her  royalty.  To  ensure  this  she  consented 


220    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

to  go  in  semi-state  to  open  a  new  wing  of  the  London 
Hospital,  thus  giving  the  East  End  a  chance  of  seeing 
her;  and  Punch  published  a  cartoon  showing  her 
standing  by  the  bedside  of  a  little  patient,  and  softly 
touching  the  child's  hair,  saying — 

"  My  darling,  I  hope  you  will  be  better  now !  " 

" '  Queen  of  the  East '  is  the  best  title  of  all,"  said 
Punch. 

However,  Victoria,  prompted  by  Disraeli,  thought 
that  all  who  opposed  the  idea  were  doing  so  purely 
from  party  motives;  she  could  not  conceive  that  there 
was  real  loyalty  and  a  dislike  of  snobbishness  behind 
the  opposition,  even  though  many  Conservatives 
joined  it.  She  used  her  influence  where  she  hoped 
it  would  be  effective,  and,  to  the  intense  astonishment 
of  Lord  Shaftesbury,  invited  him  to  dine  at  Windsor 
and  stay  the  night  of  March  n,  it  being  over  twenty 
years  since  he  had  been  her  guest. 

"  He  was  satisfied  that  it  must  be  for  some  especial 
object,  and  he  had  little  doubt  that  it  related  to  the 
question  then  uppermost  in  men's  minds — the  Royal 
Titles  Bill.  Although  the  weather  was  inclement 
Lord  Shaftesbury  went  to  Windsor. 

" '  I  dread  it,'  he  wrote  on  the  previous  day ;  '  the 
cold,  the  evening-dress,  the  solitude,  for  I  am  old, 
and  dislike  being  far  away  from  assistance  should  I 
be  ill  at  night.  .  .  .  She  sent  for  me  in  1848  to  consult 
me  on  a  very  important  matter.  Can  it  be  so  now  ? ' 

"'March  \\th. — Returned  from  Windsor.  I  am 
sure  it  was  so,  though  not  distinctly  avowed.  Her 
Majesty  personally  said  nothing.  .  .  .' 


QUEEN-EMPRESS  221 

'  The  views  that  Lord  Shaftesbury  expressed  at 
Windsor  he  was  requested  by  the  Lord-in-waiting  to 
communicate  to  Mr.  Disraeli,  and  this  was  accordingly 
done.  These  views  were  in  every  way  opposed  to 
the  proposed  title,"  and  Lord  Shaftesbury  moved  an 
address  in  the  House  of  Lords,  praying  her  Majesty 
not  to  take  it.1 

It  was  evident  from  Disraeli's  reply  in  the  House 
that  he  himself  did  not  look  upon  the  matter  as  of 
dignified  importance,  but  rather  as  a  pretty  present 
to  the  Queen,  for  he  treated  it  with  great  levity.  He 
assured  the  members  that  Milton's  Satan  twice 
addressed  Eve  as  Empress,  that  Spencer  had  dedi- 
cated his  Faerie  Queene  to  the  "  magnificent  Empress 
Elizabeth,"  and  added  further  that  a  twelve-year-old 
schoolgirl  had  written  him  that  in  Whitaker's  Almanack 
the  Queen  was  already  described  as  Empress  of 
India.  Robert  Lowe  asked  with  contempt  whether 
he  wished  the  House  to  think  as  meanly  of  the  subject 
as  he  did  himself,  and  the  number  of  dissentients 
greatly  increased. 

The  bill  passed,  of  course,  under  the  promise  that, 
instead  of  the  limitation  of  the  title  being  inserted 
in  the  bill,  the  proclamation  should  declare  that  the 
title  of  empress  was  to  be  localized  in  India  alone. 
But  the  proclamation  declared  nothing  of  the  sort, 
the  only  condition  being  that  Victoria  should  not  call 
herself  Empress  of  England,  which  led  to  the  raking 
up  of  the  whole  question  again.  A  lively  scene 
occurred  through  a  rash  speech  of  Bob  Lowe's  at  a 
1  The  Life  of  Lord  Shaftesbury.  By  Edwin  Hodder. 


222    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

dinner  at  Retford,  in  which  he  voiced  his  strong 
suspicion  that  "at  least  two  previous  ministers  have 
entirely  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  such  a 
change.  More  pliant  persons  have  now  been  found, 
and  I  have  no  doubt  the  thing  will  be  done." 

Gladstone  wrote  to  say  that  the  Queen  had  never 
made  any  such  suggestion  to  him,  but  Disraeli  was 
furious,  as  much  for  himself  as  for  his  monarch,  as 
he  said  it  held  him  up  to  public  infamy  as  servile. 
Victoria  entrusted  him  with  a  definite  contradiction 
of  the  statement,  and  Disraeli  violently  denounced 
Lowe,  thundering  at  him  and  banging  the  table,  and 
losing  himself  in  a  really  fine  spell  of  rhetoric  gone 
mad.  Justin  MacCarthy  suggested  that  it  would  have 
been  better  had  the  Prime  Minister  contradicted  the 
charge  quietly,  and  not,  by  "  this  boisterous  and  furious 
denunciation,"  have  dragged  the  dignity  of  the  Crown 
through  the  mud  of  a  parliamentary  squabble. 

Victoria  allowed  herself  little  restriction  in  the  use 
of  the  new  title,  for  within  the  year  she  signed  all 
English  documents  as  Victoria  R.  and  I.,  and  in  1893 
caused  Ind.  Imp.  to  be  engraved  on  British  coins. 
However,  to  the  people  of  England  the  imperial  title 
is  still  unfamiliar  and  almost  non-existent. 

Disraeli  had  given  the  Queen  her  wish,  and  she  in 
return  made  him  a  lord,  he  becoming  Lord  Beacons- 
field  at  the  end  of  the  session  of  1876.  The  Queen 
was  proclaimed  Empress  of  India  on  May  i,  and  on 
the  following  ist  of  January  Lord  Lytton  made  the 
proclamation  in  that  country  at  a  Durbar.  In  far 
places  the  colonels  of  regiments  announced  it  to 


QUEEN  EMPRESS  228 

assembled  crowds.  One  is  said  to  have  insisted  upon 
doing  it  in  Hindustanee  in  honour  of  the  occasion, 
and  part  of  his  speech  ran — 

"  Pigs !  The  Queen- Empress  has  sent  to  me  a 
number  of  cats,  which  I  will  now  distribute  among 
you.  She  requests  that  you  will  hang  them  round  your 
necks  and  continue  to  wear  them  in  that  manner." 

This  affair  had  kept  Victoria's  name  well  before 
the  public,  which  forgot  to  grumble,  and  she,  being 
pleased  with  her  ministers,  forgot  in  her  turn  to  feel 
irritated  and  perverse  with  her  people.  Thus,  demand 
being  withdrawn,  she  was  more  ready  to  give,  and 
appeared  several  times  in  London.  She  attended  a 
great  concert  at  Albert  Hall,  went  to  inspect  the 
elaborate  Albert  Memorial,  in  which  had  been  placed 
the  gilded  figure  of  the  Prince  Consort :  "  My  gilty 
dad,"  as  Albert  Edward  was  reported  to  have  flip- 
pantly said.  She  also  attended  the  funeral  in  West- 
minster Abbey  of  Lady  Augusta  Stanley. 

Another  of  her  ladies,  Lady  Caroline  Barrington, 
had  died  suddenly  at  Kensington  Palace,  and  the 
Queen  went  up  from  Windsor,  carrying  many  flowers, 
that  she  might  once  again  look  on  her  waiting-woman's 
face.  In  this  decade  she  lost  Dr.  Norman  Macleod 
and  her  stepsister  Feodore,  while  in  1876  died  a 
woman  to  whom  she  had  early  in  her  reign  been 
kind,  the  wife  of  the  Duke  of  Sussex,  whom  she  had 
created  Duchess  of  Inverness.  Of  her  Princess  Mary 
wrote — 

"  I,  alas !  no  longer  have  my  kind  neighbour,  the 
dear  little  Duchess,  to  fall  back  upon."    For  her  was 


224    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

opened  the  tomb  in  Kensal  Green  in  which  lay  the 
old  royal  Duke. 

Lord  John  Russell  died  in  1878  at  Pembroke  Lodge, 
and  the  next  year  the  Prince  Imperial  was  killed  in 
South  Africa.  But  there  were  two  other  deaths,  more 
dreadful  and  intimate,  which  brought  her  much 
sorrow:  one  in  1873,  when  a  little  son  of  Princess 
Alice's  fell  out  of  a  window  before  his  mother's  eyes, 
and,  falling  twenty  feet  upon  the  stones  below,  died 
in  a  few  hours;  the  other  was  five  years  later,  on  the 
melancholy  I4th  of  December,  when  Princess  Alice, 
having  nursed  her  family  through  diphtheria,  suc- 
cumbed herself  to  that  disease.  There  was  a  peculiar 
sympathy  between  Victoria  and  this  daughter,  and  the 
blow  was  very  heavy.  The  whole  country  grieved 
with  her,  for  it  had  been  much  impressed  with  the 
Princess's  fine  qualities.  She  was  buried  in  Germany, 
but  at  her  desire  her  body  was  wrapped  in  the  Union 
Jack. 


CHAPTER    XV 

A    STRAIN    UPON    LOYALTY 

"When  the  Government  ordered  the  fleet  to  the  Straits, 
They  surely  encountered  the  hardest  of  fates, 
For  the  order,  scarce  given,  at  once  was  recalled, 
And  the  Russians  were  not  in  the  slightest  appalled. 
And  every  one  says  who  has  heard  the  debates, 
It's  the  Cabinet  now,  not  the  fleet,  in  the  straits." 

Sir  H.  W.  Lucy :  '  Later  Peeps  in  Parliament.' 

"A  health  to  Jingo  first,  and  then 

A  health  to  shell,  and  then  to  shot ! 
The  man  who  hates  not  other  men, 

I  deem  no  perfect  patriot. 
To  all  who  hold  old  England  mad, 

We  drink;  to  all  who'd  tax  her  food  ! 
We  pledge  the  man  who  hates  the  Rad  ! 
We  drink  to  Bartle  Frere  and  Froude  ! 

Drinks  all  round  ! 
Here's  to  Jingo,  king  and  crowned  ! 

To  the  great  cause  of  Jingo,  drink,  my  boys  ! 
And  the  great  name  of  Jingo,  round  and  round  !  " 
Anonymous  parody  of  Tennyson's  'Hands  All  Round.' 

THE  absolute  loyalty  of  Queen  Victoria  to  the 
one-time  opinions  of  her  dead  husband  helped  to 
lead  England  occasionally  into  devious  ways.  The 
Crimean  War  was  the  result  of  an  idea  in  England 
that  Turkey  in  Europe  was  necessary  to  the  interests 
of  this  country,  and  once  the  war  was  started  the  Queen 
and  Prince  upheld  it  heart  and  soul.  Albert  had  the 

usual   German  hatred   of   Russia,   and   deplored   the 
Q  225 


226     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Prussian  tendency  to  court  the  Muscovite  as  an  ally, 
expressing  himself  with  astonishing  frankness  in  his 
letters. 

In  1875  came  the  beginning  of  another  incident 
between  Russia  and  Turkey,  and  the  Queen  followed 
exactly  the  same  course  as  had  been  pursued  over 
twenty  years  earlier,  and  unfortunately  she  had 
Disraeli,  with  his  wild  dreams  of  world  expansion,  at 
her  elbow. 

The  Turks  were  actively  oppressing  their  Christian 
subjects,  the  Slavs,  and  turning  their  backs  upon  past 
promises  and  conventions.  The  great  powers,  Russia, 
Austria  and  Prussia,  drew  up  a  Note  demanding 
Turkey's  adhesion  to  past  treaties,  and  asked  the  other 
nations  to  join  them.  France  and  Italy  at  once  agreed, 
but  England  hesitated  until  such  time  had  passed  that 
Turkey  herself  felt  oppressed  and  sent  a  message  to 
England,  which  was  in  effect — 

"  Sign,  my  dear  friend,  that  tiresome  note.  I  shall 
know  that  you  do  not  mean  it,  and  I  shall  also  know 
how  to  deal  with  it." 

England  signed,  and  the  note  was  received  in  Con- 
stantinople "  with  lively  satisfaction."  It  gave  Turkey 
time,  and  she  went  on  with  her  schemes  for  punishing 
the  Christians.  Then  the  Powers  drew  up  another 
Note,  plainly  declaring  that,  if  Turkey  insisted  upon 
transgressing,  Europe  would  force  her  to  decency.  It 
would  have  settled  the  matter,  for  Turkey  would  not 
have  thought  of  fighting  Europe.  But  to  England's 
shame  she  resolutely  refused  to  sign  this  warning, 
and  so  deliberately  broke  the  Concert  of  Europe.  It 


A  STRAIN   UPON  LOYALTY         227 

was  tantamount  to  saying  that  Turkey  was  to  be 
allowed  to  do  as  she  liked,  and  England  would  uphold 
her. 

Why  was  this  ? 

Nominally  because  England  suspected  the  good 
faith  of  Russia,  and  was  in  deadly  fear  lest  the  Tsar 
should  obtain  Constantinople  in  some  curious  way. 
But  behind  this  were  two  reasons,  both  inadequate  and, 
from  a  political  point  of  view,  vicious.  The  one  I 
have  indicated,  the  legacy  of  opinion  left  to  England 
by  the  Prince  Consort ;  the  other  was  contained  in  the 
prejudices  and  ambitions  of  the  Prime  Minister,  who, 
whatever  his  public  pretensions,  was  at  heart  a  Jew. 
In  the  last  year  of  his  life  he  said  to  Lord  Ronald 
Gower — 

"  I  would  indeed  be  very  ungrateful  to  Christianity, 
which  has  caused  half  the  world  to  worship  a  man 
and  the  other  half  a  woman,  both  of  my  race." 

As  such,  Disraeli  had  far  more  sympathy  with  the 
Mahommedans  than  with  the  Eastern  Christians ;  had 
not  the  latter  often  persecuted  the  Jews?  and  how 
could  he  declare  friendship  for  Russia  ?  And  further, 
he  had  gorgeous  dreams  concerning  Egypt;  perhaps, 
as  some  one  said,  of  advancing  from  an  earl  to  being 
Duke  of  Memphis. 

So,  for  what  might  be  called  English  royal  family 
reasons,  Turkey  went  on  its  way  rejoicing.  It  burned 
Bulgarian  villages  and  put  every  inhabitant  to  the 
sword;  Turkish  soldiers  took  whole  parties  of  girls, 
and  having  done  with  them  thrust  them  into  barns  and 
then  burnt  buildings  and  humans  to  cinders.  The 


228    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

church  at  Batak  was  found  piled  with  bodies,  mostly 
women  and  children,  half-way  up  the  low  arches.  It 
had  been  set  on  fire,  pieces  of  the  roof  torn  off  and 
burning  oil  poured  in  upon  those  below.  Those  who 
tried  to  escape  were  sabred,  and  the  churchyard  was 
piled  two  feet  deep  with  bodies.  These  are  but  inci- 
dents in  the  many  terrible  things  that  occurred,  and 
warnings  of  which  were  sent  to  England  by  alarmed 
English  out  there.  Then  reports  arrived,  but  neither 
warning  nor  report  moved  Disraeli.  He  laughed  at 
it  all,  called  the  accounts  "coffee-house  babble,"  and 
as  they  were  first  published  in  The  Daily  News, 
declared  that  it  was  all  a  party  trick. 

The  country  got  hot  over  it,  and  questions  were 
constantly  asked  in  the  House ;  The  Daily  News  sent 
out  a  new  Commissioner,  who  returned  with  confirma- 
tion of  all  that  had  been  told,  and  added  horrible 
details.  Still  Disraeli  treated  it  with  scorn,  and, 
knowing  little  of  Turkish  affairs,  asserted  that  the 
Bashi-Bazouks  were  Circassians  who  had  long  lived 
in  Bulgaria  by  the  consent  of  Europe,  and  went  on 
to  reproach  the  "  Liberal  Party  with  the  lack  of 
sympathy  they  now  showed  for  a  race  of  beings  in 
whom  they  once  professed  such  an  interest."  He  also 
described  the  Bulgarians  as  cruel  oppressors  of  the 
Turks,  probably  having  once  read  Voltaire's  Candide. 
As  late  as  August  1 1  he  asserted  that  the  whole  thing 
was  negligible  and  grossly  exaggerated,  and  that  the 
integrity  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  should  be  the  leading 
principle  of  the  foreign  policy  of  England. 

That  was  the  last  speech  he  made  in  the  Commons, 


A  STRAIN   UPON  LOYALTY         229 

and  it  ended  on  the  word  "  empire."  Instead  of  pass- 
ing behind  the  Speaker's  chair,  he  walked  the  full 
length  of  the  House,  turned  about  at  the  Bar,  glanced 
round  at  the  familiar  scene,  and  walked  out  never 
to  return. 

The  next  morning  all  the  world  was  astonished  to 
hear  that  he  had  gone  to  the  Upper  House  as  Lord 
Beaconsfield.  The  moment  chosen  helped  him  over 
a  difficult  situation.  He  intended  to  stick  to  his  policy, 
but  he  knew  that  the  majority  of  the  country  was 
against  him,  and  he  told  the  Queen  that  he  must 
resign.  She  suggested  his  acceptance  of  a  peerage, 
and  he  replied,  "  Yes,  but  with  resignation."  She 
answered  that  that  was  impossible  in  the  then  state  of 
Europe.1 

Not  only  the  Queen,  but  under  her  influence  her 
Court  was  loudly  pro-Turk,  especially  Leopold  and 
Mary  of  Teck.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was  the  only 
one  who  truly  regarded  his  royal  position,  and  no  one 
ever  knew  on  which  side  he  stood,  while  he  retained 
relations  of  equal  cordiality  with  the  leaders  of  both 
parties. 

To  save  its  credit  the  Government  had  to  send  out 
a  representative  to  inquire  into  the  "  atrocities,"  and 
he  came  back  with  much  the  same  story,  upon  which 
the  excitement  rose  high.  Gladstone  who,  being 
sixty-five,  had  resigned  the  leadership  of  his  party 
in  1873,  was  moved  with  such  indignation  that  he 
wrote  a  pamphlet  upon  the  question  which  went  like 

1  Told  by  Lord  Granville  to  Mr.  Gladstone,  "on  the  authority 
of  a  high  personage." 


230    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

wildfire,  and  he  spoke  at  great  meetings,  champion- 
ing the  cause  of  the  Slavs,  and  saying  that  England 
should  send  the  Turks  out  of  Bulgaria,  bag  and 
baggage. 

Beaconsfield  retaliated  when  speaking  at  what  had 
been  his  own  seat,  Aylesbury,  by  a  violent  diatribe 
against  the  enemies  of  Turkey,  and  added  that  "the 
conduct  of  his  political  opponents  was  worse  than  any 
Bulgarian  atrocity."  At  the  Lord  Mayor's  banquet 
later,  he  hinted  at  approaching  war  with  Russia,  and 
from  that  time  no  one,  not  even  his  own  followers, 
knew  what  he  would  do  next. 

The  Queen,  as  has  been  said,  was  wholeheartedly 
for  Turkey;  sorry  for  the  Bulgarians,  of  course,  but 
that  was  not  diplomacy ;  and  politically  she  never  had 
had  sympathy  for  small  countries  rebelling  against 
tyrannical  rulers;  all  through  her  life,  without  excep- 
tion, she  had  been  true  to  her  caste,  and  had  upheld 
monarchy  against  oppressed  people.  Up  to  the 
autumn  of  1876  she  thought  the  matter  had  been 
managed  fairly  well.  She  believed  that  the  public 
disgust  at  Turkey  would  soon  die  down,  especially  if 
she  could  show  Russia  as  she  herself  saw  her.  And 
then  across  this  growing  content  fell  Gladstone's 
pamphlet.  She  was  astounded  and  then  furious.  The 
man  had  resigned  the  leadership ;  how  dared  he  come 
forward  in  this  way  ?  She  seemed  to  think  that  in  that 
resignation  he  had  sold  his  birthright  as  an  English- 
man and  a  politician.  Had  there  been  any  wavering 
in  her  mind  about  war,  this  settled  it,  and  "  She 
accepted  unhesitatingly  Lord  Beaconsfield's  view  that 


A  STRAIN   UPON  LOYALTY         231 

England  was  bound  to  protect  Turkey  from  injury  at 
Russia's  hands."  l 

Russia  may  have  been  as  untrustworthy  as  our 
Imperialists  believed,  but  it  cannot  be  denied  that  up 
to  that  point  Russia  had  been  perfectly  correct  in  her 
attitude,  and  she  was  equally  correct  in  her  further 
proceedings.  She  said — 

"  Here  is  an  offshoot  of  my  own  nation,  speaking 
a  form  of  my  own  tongue  and  following  my  own 
religion,  being  exterminated  by  a  lawless  and  barbar- 
ous nation.  I  have  asked  you  to  help  me  peacefully 
to  protect  Bulgaria,  and  you  have  refused.  Now 
I  shall  take  matters  into  my  own  hands  and  fight 
for  it." 

Victoria  did  her  utmost  to  dissuade  the  Tsar,  to 
make  him  leave  his  kinsmen  a  continued  prey  to  the 
inhumanities  of  the  Turk.  She  privately  based  her 
reasoning  entirely  upon  Albert's  programme  of  twenty- 
four  years  earlier,  and  she  felt  that  every  right-minded 
person  would  agree  with  her.  Alexander  listened 
politely  and  refused  to  be  bound  by  the  wishes  of  her 
defunct  consort. 

The  third  volume  of  Albert's  life,  which  had  been 
intended  to  be  the  last,  was  then  being  written,  and 
she  altered  the  whole  scope  of  it,  for  it  had  reached 
the  period  of  the  Crimean  War.  The  book  dealt  with 
this  in  every  detail,  and  though  she  could  not  possibly 
have  conceived  it,  it  was  not  altogether  to  the  Prince's 
credit.  It  showed  him  as  an  advocate  of  war  at  all 
risks  and  to  the  last  extreme.  Prussia,  for  refusing 
1  Queen  Victoria.  By  Sir  Sidney  Lee. 


232    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

to  join  England  in  that  reckless  war,  was  vilified  in 
the  Prince's  letters  to  Stockmar :  "  Prussia's  conduct 
is  truly  revolting,  and  the  King  is  looked  upon  by  all 
political  men  here  with  profound  contempt."  The 
King  was  also  described  as  a  nobody,  who  dishonoured 
his  monarchy,  as  a  tool  of  Russia,  as  trembling  in  his 
shoes,  and  ready  to  pawn  his  soul  rather  than  provoke 
Russia. 

The  book  also  showed  how,  at  the  instigation  of 
Stockmar,  the  Prince  and  the  Queen  had  interfered 
in  politics,  badgered  their  ministers,  and  had  gravely 
accepted  such  nonsense  from  the  old  German  as, 
'  The  old  Tories  have  died  out,  and  the  race  which 
in  the  present  day  (1854)  bears  the  name  are 
simply  bastards,"  and  "the  Whigs  stand  in  the 
same  relation  to  the  Throne  as  the  wolf  does  to  the 
lamb." 

Theodore  Martin  suggested  that  in  deference  to  the 
relationship  between  the  royal  families  of  Russia  and 
England,  various  passages  should  be  deleted,  but  the 
Queen  scorned  the  idea.  "  Do  not  let  the  fact  of  my 
son's  marriage  into  the  Russian  family  weigh  with 
you  for  a  moment !  Whatever  conclusions  you  come 
to  upon  the  facts  and  documents  before  you,  express 
them  as  if  no  such  marriage  existed,"  was  her 
command.  The  book  was  published  in  1877,  pro- 
voking five  marvellous  criticisms  by  "  Verax  "  in  the 
Manchester  Guardian,  criticisms  which  were  a  deep 
sign  of  the  spirit  of  the  time. 

Alexander  fought  and  thrashed  Turkey,  and 
Victoria,  watching  events  with  trembling  anxiety,  "  did 


A  STRAIN   UPON  LOYALTY         238 

not  dissemble  her  disgust  and  disappointment "  at 
his  success. 

At  the  end  of  1877,  to  show  her  confidence  in  him, 
Queen  Victoria  with  Princess  Beatrice  went,  with  much 
publicity,  to  visit  Beaconsfield  at  Hughenden,  lunched 
with  him  and  planted  the  inevitable  tree  on  the  lawn. 
It  was  done  in  the  face  of  Europe,  and  Europe  duly 
registered  the  fact  that  in  policy  Victoria  was  one  with 
her  Prime  Minister. 

Beaconsfield  denounced  Russia  so  often,  hinting,  as 
often  at  war,  that  the  people  began  at  last  to  believe 
that  their  country  was  in  imminent  danger,  and  that 
their  solemn  duty  was  to  fight  for  the  unspeakable 
Turk,  who  had  showered  honours  upon  the  soldiers 
engaged  in  murder  and  rapine  in  Bulgaria.  He  tried 
his  utmost  to  push  England  into  another  Crimea,  but 
his  Cabinet  was  not  with  him,  and  he  once  said  in 
private  conversation,  "  In  my  Cabinet  of  twelve  we 
have  six  parties;  two  think  we  should  go  to  war  with 
Russia  immediately,  two  think  that  we  should  go  to 
war  with  her  before  she  gets  to  Constantinople,  two 
think  we  should  go  to  war  with  her  when  she  has 
reached  Constantinople,  two  think  we  should  not  go 
to  war  at  all."  He  ended  with,  "  The  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  and  I  think  that  something  ought  to 
be  done,  but  we  don't  know  what  it  should  be." 

A  curious  comedy  in  five  acts  took  place  in  this 
divergent  Cabinet,  and  five  times  we  were  on  the  brink 
of  war,  each  crisis  coinciding  with  a  popular  upheaval 
provoked  by  ministerial  papers,  and  from  the  music- 
halls  came  the  Jingo  chorus — 


234     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

"We  don't  want  to  fight — 

But,  by  jingo,  if  we  do, 
We've  got  the  ships,  we've  got  the  men, 
We've  got  the  money  too." 

ACT  I. — January  1878.  Beaconsfield  insisting  that 
the  Fleet  be  sent  to  the  Dardanelles  as  a  threat  to 
Russia,  Lord  Carnarvon  resigned.  The  Prime 
Minister  retracted. 

ACT  II. — Fleet  ordered  to  Dardanelles.  Lord 
Carnarvon  finally  and  Lord  Derby  for  the  first  time 
gave  in  resignations.  Beaconsfield  drew  back,  order- 
ing Fleet  to  stop  at  Besika  Bay. 

ACT  III. — Demand  for  money  for  Army  and  Navy. 
The  Fleet  again  ordered  to  Constantinople  to  protect 
the  Turks.  Russia  replied,  "  Then  my  Fleet  shall 
go  there  to  protect  the  Christians."  Compromise 
made.  British  ships  not  to  touch  Gallipoli.  Russian 
ships  to  keep  to  south  of  Dardanelles. 

ACT  IV. — News  of  peace  between  Russia  and  Tur- 
key, and  distracted  cries  of  Austria  that  she  had  been 
cheated.  Jingo  shouts  for  war — under  prompting; 
Reserves  called  out,  Army  brought  from  India  to 
Malta.  Derby  resigned  finally,  checkmating  Beacons- 
field  again. 

ACT  V. — Public  bluff.  Loud  threatenings  —  to 
sustain  the  Jingoes1 — and  secret  treaties  signed  with 
Russia  and  Turkey. 

During  the  third  act  the  British  public  went  mad. 
Crowds  patrolled  the  London  streets  shrieking  for 
war,  howling  over  Gladstone  as  a  traitor  and  threaten- 
ing to  pull  down  his  house  brick  by  brick,  so  that  a 


A  STRAIN   UPON  LOYALTY         235 

force  of  police  had  to  be  kept  in  readiness  to  prevent 
disaster.  One  Sunday  three  different  parties  arrived, 
one  friendly,  the  others  hostile,  and  in  spite  of  the 
police  all  the  windows  were  broken.  There  were  other 
and  worse  demonstrations,  on  one  occasion  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Gladstone  being  dragged  from  the  steps  and 
mobbed.  '  There  is  strange  work  behind  the  cur- 
tain," said  Gladstone;  "the  instigators  are  really  those 
guilty;  no  one  can  wonder  at  the  tools."  (It  was  by 
many  believed  that  Disraeli's  hatred  of  Gladstone 
had  caused  these  personal  attacks.) 

A  few  days  after  the  breaking  of  his  windows 
Gladstone  received  a  post-office  order  for  £3  ios.,  the 
sender,  a  working  man,  saying  that  he  was  so  ashamed 
of  what  had  happened  that  he,  his  wife  and  family 
had  scraped  together  money  to  repair  the  damage. 

At  this  time  Beaconsfield  said  to  a  friend,  "  I  have 
got  the  Parliament  and  the  nation  at  my  back,  and  if 
I  were  ten  years  younger  I  could  settle  all  Europe." 
Yet  his  fall,  the  result  of  his  own  Imperialism,  was 
not  far  off,  for  the  inevitable  reaction  against  a  too 
enthusiastic  jingoism  had  set  in. 

But  before  that  happened  his  career  was  to  receive 
its  crown  at  that  European  Congress  at  Berlin  sug- 
gested by  Bismarck.  He  attained  the  dream  of  his 
life,  and  one  feels  glad  that,  whatever  his  faults,  this 
ambitious  man  of  "  dissolving  views,"  this  "  melan- 
choly harlequin,"  as  Carlyle  dubbed  him,  should 
have  attained  to  that  fugitive  glory  which  appealed 
to  his  soul.  He  made  himself  plenipotentiary  with 
Lord  Salisbury  at  the  Berlin  Congress,  and  through 


236    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Germany  his  journey  was  a  progress  in  the  midst 
of  a  curious,  gratified  and  acclamatory  people.  This 
hollow  fraud  of  a  congress  had  its  humorous  incidents, 
for  Beaconsfield,  knowing  that  the  official  language 
would  be  French,  but  speaking  that  language  very 
badly,  determined  to  make  his  speech  in  that  tongue, 
and  he  learned  it  by  heart  under  the  tuition  of  his 
fellow  minister.  Lord  Odo  Russell,  the  ambassador 
in  Berlin,  was  in  despair,  and  had  the  wit,  on  being 
appealed  to,  to  say — 

"  But  that  will  be  a  great  disappointment." 

"Why?" 

"  Because,  knowing  that  you  are  a  great  master  of 
English  eloquence,  every  one  has  been  looking  for- 
ward to  your  addressing  the  Congress  in  English  as 
to  an  intellectual  treat." 

'  You  don't  say  so  !  "  replied  Beaconsfield  musingly, 
and  the  French  speech  was  torn  up.  His  French  was 
so  poor  that  he  found  it  very  difficult  to  follow  the 
other  speakers,  and  each  day  before  setting  out  drank 
three  tumblers  of  good  port  to  steady  his  nerves. 

To  the  public  the  Conference  seemed  a  great  thing, 
but  in  reality  it  was  a  pretence.  Two  secret  treaties 
had  already  been  signed,  and  in  face  of  Victoria's 
insistence  upon  her  right  to  pass  every  detail  of 
diplomatic  affairs,  it  must  be  supposed  that  this  was 
done  with  her  sanction.  One  treaty  gave  Russia  part 
of  what  it  wanted,  approximating  to  Gladstone's  "  bag 
and  baggage  "  policy;  the  other  was  a  convention  with 
Turkey,  promising  to  defend  that  country  in  Asia,  and 
demanding  the  cession  of  Cyprus. 


A  STRAIN   UPON  LOYALTY         237 

These  treaties  were  published  in  the  Globe  four 
days  after  the  plenipotentiaries  had  started  for  Berlin, 
through  the  instrumentality  of  a  clerk,  engaged  tempo- 
rarily in  copying  at  the  Foreign  Office.  He  was 
accused  at  Bow  Street  of  stealing  information,  but  the 
charge  was  quashed  as  the  Government  dared  not  risk 
publicity.  Thus,  as  Moncure  Conway  wrote,  "  the 
whole  theatric  display  ended  with  the  grand  London 
Ballet,  Aphrodite,  of  which  Cyprus  was  the  scene, 
Beaconsfield  and  the  Queen  of  Cyprus  the  hero  and 
heroine." 

At  the  Conference  the  Russian  minister  and 
Beaconsfield  had  a  sparring  match  to  keep  up  appear- 
ances, and  then  came  to  an  agreement,  upon  which 
the  English  hero  telegraphed  to  his  sovereign  that 
he  had  secured  peace  with  honour.  Joyous  meetings 
were  held  all  over  the  country.  No  one  understood 
anything  about  it,  except  that  the  Prime  Minister  had 
in  some  wonderful  way  assured  a  glorious  peace  to 
our  land,  and  some  people  did  not  even  compre- 
hend that.  For  at  one  gathering,  when  a  great  trans- 
parency of  Beaconsfield  and  Salisbury  was  shown, 
a  woman  accosted  the  sitting  member  of  the  place 
with — 

"  Please,  sir,  will  you  tell  me  which  is  Peace  ?  "  (the 
murderer). 

But  the  "peace  with  honour"  was  only  three  weeks 
old  when  "the  bloody  overture  was  being  played  all 
over  again,"  and  the  newspapers  were  filled  with 
accounts  of  a  new  campaign,  involving  Austria,  Tur- 
key, Bosnia  and  Herzegovina.  As  The  Hornet,  of 


238    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Conservative  politics  said,  the  phrase  was  "  a  clap- 
trap euphemism  for  rapine,  pillage  and  slaughter." 

Gladstone,  who  knew  the  inner  workings  of  this 
wonderful  diplomatic  affair,  angered  Beaconsfield  by 
describing  the  Conference  as  an  insane  convention;  so 
the  latter  gave  utterance  at  a  dinner  to  the  famous 
retort  that  Gladstone  was  "  a  sophistical  rhetorician 
inebriated  with  the  exuberance  of  his  own  verbosity, 
and  gifted  with  that  egotistical  imagination  that  can 
at  all  times  command  an  interminable  and  inconsistent 
series  of  arguments  to  malign  an  opponent  and  to 
glorify  himself." 

The  Queen  honoured  Beaconsfield  on  his  return  to 
England  by  conferring  on  him  the  Order  of  the 
Garter. 

Like  Bismarck,  Beaconsfield  was  drunk  with  Im- 
perialism, which  inevitably  means  war.  He  had  sent 
Sir  Bartle  Frere  to  South  Africa  and  Lord  Lytton  to 
India,  first  imbuing  both  with  his  policy,  and  both 
obeyed  not  wisely  but  too  well.  South  African  affairs 
are  so  little  known  that  it  is  difficult  to  judge  what  was 
or  was  not  necessary  in  regard  to  the  Zulus  or  the 
Boers,  but  general  opinion  decried  Bartle  Frere's 
Zulu  War  as  unnecessary.  The  withdrawal  of  Indian 
troops  to  Malta  caused  a  threatening  movement  by 
Russia  upon  Afghanistan,  and  Lytton  retaliated  by 
taking  steps  to  establish  English  influence  in  that 
country,  and  so  came  the  Afghan  War. 

The  sensation  of  the  South  African  War,  apart  from 
the  later  event  of  Majuba  Hill,  was  the  death  of  the 
Prince  Imperial.  It  was  his  own  fault  from  beginning 


A  STRAIN   UPON  LOYALTY         239 

to  end,  for  he  was  a  wilful,  masterful  person.  He 
insisted  upon  joining  the  English  force  that,  by 
proving  himself  on  the  field,  he  might  make  himself 
acceptable  to  France;  yet  there  were  hints  that  one 
motive  was  said  to  be  a  love  affair  with  a  girl  at 
Chislehurst.  Popular  report,  however,  insisted  that 
there  was  an  attachment  between  him  and  Princess 
Beatrice,  and  much  sympathy  was  felt  for  her  when 
the  news  came. 

Though  the  Prince  was  only  allowed  to  go  as  a 
spectator  in  the  war  area,  he  joined,  in  spite  of  remon- 
strance, in  reconnaissance  work,  and  further,  when  the 
little  force  was  starting  on  the  morning  of  the  fatality, 
he  insisted  upon  going  away  with  half  of  it,  refusing 
to  wait  for  the  others,  who  were  late.  In  the  afternoon, 
when  Lieutenant  Carey  urged  the  necessity  of  return- 
ing, he  refused  to  shorten  his  siesta,  and  so  was  caught. 
It  was  almost  as  though  the  gods  intended  his  death. 
To  his  mother  at  Chislehurst  it  brought  terrible  sorrow, 
and  no  one  showed  her  such  sympathy  and  loving- 
kindness  as  Queen  Victoria,  who  had  learned  through 
grief  how  to  assuage  grief.  The  latter  wanted  Parlia- 
ment to  put  up  a  statue  to  him  in  Westminster,  and 
even  visited  the  Abbey  to  select  a  spot,  persuading 
Gladstone,  ever  pliant  to  her  in  sentimental  matters, 
to  support  the  idea ;  but  it  was  refused  on  the  grounds 
of  policy  and  nationality,  so  she  had  to  withdraw  tbe 
request,  contenting  herself  with  putting  a  memo'ial 
in  St.  George's  Chapel. 

These  two  wars  were  the  death-knell  to  Beacons- 
field's  political  life.  The  people  were  beginning  to 


tire  of  Jingoism,  to  feel  a  distrust  of  the  Prime 
Minister's  foreign  policy,  and  there  was  an  alarming 
deficit  in  finance,  for  glory  had  to  be  paid  for.  How- 
ever, neither  the  Queen  nor  Beaconsfield  scented 
danger,  for  the  latter's  love  of  show  and  power  had 
run  away  with  him.  Without  the  inflexibility  of 
Bismarck,  he  still  further  emulated  that  "blood  and 
iron  "  statesman  by  declaring  to  his  mistress  that  he 
desired  to  make  her  (poor  little  woman  !)  the  Dictatress 
of  Europe  (and  poor  Europe  !),  writing,  "  Many  things 
are  preparing,  which  for  the  sake  of  peace  and  civil- 
ization render  it  most  necessary  that  your  Majesty 
should  occupy  that  position." 

"  Who  knows  what  dreams  of  domination  these 
two  gave  themselves  up  to  in  the  communion  of 
their  souls,  this  subjugated  woman  and  this  prodigious 
actor?"1 

London  still  applauded  the  Prime  Minister,  the 
clubs  entertaining  him,  and  neither  he  nor  the  Queen 
looked  for  signs  into  the  country  or  among  those  who 
felt  the  economic  pinch.  Her  anger  was  still  hot 
against  Gladstone  for  his  opposition  to  Beaconsfield. 
In  the  spring,  when  Arthur  of  Connaught  was  married 
to  Princess  Louise  Margaret,  third  daughter  of  Prince 
Frederick  Charles  of  Prussia,  she  offered  the  public 
affront  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gladstone  of  refusing  to  ask 
them  to  the  wedding,  though  Beaconsfield  himself 
urged  it,  and  though  Gladstone  had  again  thrown  his 
influence  on  her  side  in  the  matter  of  settlements.  But 
she  did  more  than  this.  Knowing  that  the  Gladstones 
1  La  Reine  Victoria.  By  Abel  Chevalley. 


A  STRAIN   UPON  LOYALTY         241 

often  visited  the  Wellesleys  at  the  Deanery  at  Wind- 
sor, Victoria  wrote  to  the  Dean  suggesting  that,  as 
Mr.  Gladstone  was  making  violent  attacks  on  the 
Government,  it  would  be  as  well  to  cause  these  visits 
to  be  discontinued.  "  Whereupon,"  said  the  stout  old 
Dean,  "  I  wrote  her  a  tickler."  Imagination  boggles 
at  the  thought,  says  Mr.  G.  W.  E.  Russell,  who  tells 
the  story. 

In  the  autumn  of  1879  Gladstone  was  invited  to 
contest  Midlothian,  and  he  started  at  the  end  of 
November  on  that  remarkable  campaign  which,  for  a 
man  who  a  year  before  had  congratulated  himself  if 
he  walked  a  short  distance  in  London  without  being 
insulted,  whose  very  friends  feared  his  eloquence  and 
his  energy,  was  a  bewildering  and  enthusiastic  progress 
through  town  after  town,  ever  surrounded  by  cheering 
crowds.  Beaconsfield  called  it  the  Pilgrimage  of 
Passion. 

Viscount  Esher  tells  a  story,  which  is  hardly  parlia- 
mentary, of  George  Hamilton  attacking  Gladstone  in 
a  public  speech  during  this  campaign.  "  And  why  did 
Mr.  Gladstone  do  this,  and  why  did  he  do  the  other? 
I  will  tell  you  why.  Mr.  Gladstone  has  an  eye  on  the 
Treasury  Bench."  Upon  this  a  man  in  the  crowd 
cried  out,  "  Yes,  and  if  you  don't  look  out  he  will  have 
his  b — m  on  it  soon." 

In  his  speeches  Gladstone  did  not  spare  either  the 
Prime  Minister  or  the  Government,  and  Victoria's 
indignation  was  intense,  she  declaring  both  in  con- 
versation and  in  letters  that  his  attacks  on  her  favourite 
were  shameful  and  disgraceful.  It  is  certain  that, 


242    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

had  the  case  been  reversed,  she  would  have  thought 
Beaconsfield  justified  in  using  the  highest  and  lowest 
of  his  enormous  range  of  rhetoric  and  invective  against 
Gladstone.  But  with  high  hearts,  still  sure  that  the 
people  must  see  with  their  eyes  and  look  forward  to 
a  glorious  future  under  their  foreign  policy,  the  Queen 
and  Beaconsfield  decided  in  March  1880  that  the 
Government  must  go  to  the  country ;  and  Victoria  went 
to  visit  Germany,  to  stay  in  the  home  of  her  dear  lost 
daughter,  in  thorough  confidence  as  to  the  result.  But 
from  the  very  first  day  of  the  elections  it  was  evident 
that  a  tremendous  reaction  had  set  in,  and  when  all 
was  done  the  Liberals  had  a  majority  in  England, 
Wales  and  Scotland  of  119.  Thus  ended  what 
Madame  Blaze  de  Bury  described  as  "the  reign  of 
the  mad  Caliph." 

Beaconsfield  was  staying  at  Hatfield  alone,  for 
Salisbury  was  abroad,  and  as  the  news  rolled  in  upon 
him,  hour  by  hour,  he  faced  the  ruins  of  his  hopes  as 
a  great  man,  accepting  with  a  seemingly  undisturbed 
mind  the  conviction  of  his  final  downfall;  and  turned 
to  the  completing  of  his  last  novel,  Endymion.  He 
had  reached  to  the  very  summit  of  honour,  had  refused 
a  dukedom  offered  by  his  distressed  queen,  and  felt 
that  he  had  no  time  left  in  which  to  regret  lost  dreams. 
Lord  Ronald  Gower  says  that  he  gave  himself  two 
more  years  of  life,  and  the  Queen  twenty.  He  also 
once  remarked,  "  Bismarck  and  I  were  perfectly  in 
accord.  Had  the  late  Government  lasted  we  would 
have  kept  the  democrats  in  Europe  in  check ;  but  now 
all  is  over !  "  He  did  not  realize  that  the  very  desire 


A  STRAIN   UPON  LOYALTY         243 

to  keep  a  living  force  in  check  had  helped  to  bring 
about  his  own  downfall. 

Exactly  a  year  later,  on  April  19,  1881,  Beaconsfield 
died  of  gout  and  bronchitis,  saying  during  his  illness, 
"  I  would  confess  anything,  if  I  were  a  Nihilist,  under 
my  torture."  When  he  was  dying  one  watching  doctor 
said,  "  I  think  the  old  gentleman  is  gone  at  last,"  and 
Dizzy,  humorous  to  the  end,  quietly  remarked,  "  Not 
yet." 

The  Queen  asked,  and  Gladstone  offered,  a  public 
funeral,  but  the  statesman  had  wished  to  lie  by  his 
wife.  As  had  been  her  burial,  so  was  his,  the  coffin 
being  carried  through  the  grounds  of  Hughenden 
to  the  churchyard;  but  the  service  was  attended 
by  many  uninvited  princes,  ambassadors  and  country 
people. 

Victoria,  writing  later  in  the  year  on  the  death  of 
the  Duchess  of  Westminster,  said,  "/  don't  under- 
stand the  wish  to  be  buried  in  a  churchyard,  but  I 
know  some  vaults  are  gloomy  and  painful."  She  sent 
two  wreaths  for  the  grave,  the  one  of  immortelles 
inscribed,  "  With  the  true  affection,  respect  and  friend- 
ship of  the  Queen  " ;  the  other  was  a  wreath  of  prim- 
roses, with  a  card  bearing  the  words,  "His  favourite 
flower.  Gathered  at  Osborne.  A  tribute  of  affection 
from  Queen  Victoria." 

Only  one  person  was  ever  designated  in  this  way 
without  a  name  by  Victoria ;  to  her  the  pronoun  thus 
used  could  refer  only  to  one,  Prince  Albert.  But 
sentimentalists  rushed  to  the  idea  that  Beaconsfield 
had  loved  the  lowly  primrose,  and  they  still  dedicate 


244    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

the  flower  to  his  memory.  He  was  once  asked — I 
forget  by  whom — if  he  liked  the  primrose,  and  replied, 
'  Yes,  in  a  salad."  On  the  other  hand  he  is  reported 
to  have  said,  "  I  like  to  be  in  the  country  when  the 
primroses  are  out."  That  Beaconsfield,  with  his  love 
of  colour  and  gorgeousness,  with  his  eyes  always 
raised  to  the  stars  of  fame,  with  his  wild  ambition  to 
rule  Europe,  had  the  right  sentiment  to  love  a  lowly 
yellow  blossom  is  unthinkable.  But  to  Prince  Albert, 
deeply  interested  in  wood  and  field,  in  life  animate 
and  inanimate,  such  a  preference  was  natural.  The 
Queen,  seeing  in  the  primrose  cult  a  new  agent  in 
strengthening  Conservatism,  never  declared  what  her 
sentence  had  meant. 

However,  some  of  us  still  smile  over  Primrose  Day, 
but  many  sorrow  over  the  devastation  of  field,  hedge- 
row and  coppice,  over  the  bespoiled  country  and  the 
children  who  seek  and  cannot  find  the  yellow  flowers 
after  that  murderous  spring  day  has  passed. 

A  week  after  the  funeral  two  women  clad  in  mourn- 
ing entered  the  churchyard  at  Hughenden.  The  elder 
woman  was  Queen  Victoria,  and  she  went  alone  to 
Beaconsfield's  grave,  where,  weeping,  she  laid  a  wreath 
and  a  cross  of  white  camellias — far  better  emblem  of 
the  dead  man's  tastes — upon  it.  She  then  joined  her 
daughter  Beatrice  and  went  to  the  Manor,  resting 
awhile  in  his  study.  The  following  year  she  ordered 
a  monument  to  be  put  in  Hughenden  Church,  upon 
which  was  inscribed — 

"To  the  dear  and  honoured  memory  of  Benjamin, 
Earl    of    Beaconsfield,    this    memorial    is    raised    by 


A  STRAIN   UPON  LOYALTY         245 

his  grateful  and  affectionate  Sovereign  and  friend, 
Victoria,  R.I.  Kings  love  them  that  speaketh 
right." 

Some  of  those  who  still  thought  of  the  Bulgarian 
atrocities  made  the  reverse  comment  that  "  Queens 
love  them  that  speaketh  wrong."  Beaconsfield's  sup- 
porters were  joyful  over  the  evidence  that  the  Queen 
was  on  their  side,  but  a  little  later  they  found  that  she 
could  be  equally  eulogistic  about  a  quite  different 
person. 

The  dreadful  strain  which  had  been  put  upon  the 
loyalty  of  England  for  five  years  was  over.  If  you 
read  the  remarkable  essays  already  mentioned,  which 
were  written  by  H.  Dunckley  in  the  Manchester 
Guardian  and  signed  "Verax,"  in  1878,  it  will  be 
easier  to  understand  how  the  whole  constitution 
tottered  under  the  combined  actions  of  Victoria  and 
Beaconsfield.  As  the  Hon.  G.  W.  E.  Russell  says  in 
his  An  Onlooker's  Notebook,  "  That  the  strain  did  not 
reach  bursting-point  was  beyond  all  question  due  to 
the  facts  that  the  throne  was  occupied  by  a  queen, 
and  that  the  real  leader  of  the  militant  Opposition  was 
the  man  who  of  all  others  most  ardently  cherished  the 
principle  of  chivalrous  loyalty  to  the  Crown." 

Englishmen  would  never  have  borne  from  a  king 
what  they  passed  over  as  coming  from  a  queen. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

ANGER  AND  MORTIFICATION 

"  Perched  as  I  am  on  a  dreary,  sad  pinnacle  of  solitary 
grandeur." —  Queen  Victoria,  in  a  letter  to  Sir  Theodore  Martin. 

"The  cause  of  the  rising"  in  the  Sudan  is  the  cause  of  all 
risings  against  Turkish  rule,  wherever  they  have  occurred.  No 
one  who  has  been  in  a  Turkish  province  and  has  witnessed 
the  results  of  the  Bashi-Bazouk  system,  which  excited  so  much 
indignation  some  time  ago  in  Bulgaria,  will  need  to  be  told  why 
the  people  of  the  Sudan  have  risen  in  revolt  against  the  Khedive. 
The  Turks,  the  Circassians,  and  the  Bashi-Bazouks  have  plun- 
dered and  oppressed  the  people  in  the  Sudan  as  they  plundered 
and  oppressed  them  in  the  Balkan  peninsula.  .  .  .  That  the 
people  were  justified  in  rebelling,  nobody  who  knows  the  treat- 
ment to  which  they  were  subjected  will  attempt  to  deny.  .  .  . 
It  is  a  mistake  to  regard  the  Mahdi  as  in  any  sense  a  religious 
leader ;  he  personified  popular  discontent.  .  .  .  The  movement 
is  not  religious,  but  an  outbreak  of  despair." — Letter  by  General 
Gordon,  included  in  '  Events  in  the  Life  of  Charles  G.  Gordon,'  by 
H.  W.  Gordon. 

WITH  the  fall  and  death  of  Disraeli  the  Queen  lost 
far  more  than  a  friend ;  she  lost  her  dreams,  her  ambi- 
tion, her  feeling  of  security  and  her  happiness.  When 
Gladstone  was  in  power  his  aim  was  to  consolidate 
Britain  from  within;  when  Beaconsfield  was  in  power 
his  desire  was  to  extend  the  empire  outwards.  The 
former  went  straight  at  his  mark  of  renovating  outworn 
laws  and  customs,  raising  the  standard  of  the  people 
and  reforming  abuses;  the  latter  spoke  softly  to  his 

Queen,  pointed  to  her  colonies  and  whispered  that  they 

346 


ANGER   AND  MORTIFICATION      247 

spread  over  the  earth,  that  the  tie  which  must  bind  them 
to  England  would  be  neither  Parliament  nor  blood,  but 
the  Empress-Queen.  Beaconsfield  raised  dreams  of 
world-wide  dominance  which  would  have  done  justice 
to  a  Hohenzollern ;  he  bred  in  her  mind  an  appreciation 
of  war,  and  tutored  her  in  believing  that  aggrandise- 
ment justified  war;  he  kept  the  people  in  a  constant 
state  of  surprise,  cast  over  them  the  glamour  of  a 
spirited  foreign  policy,  and  presented  them  with  finely 
coloured  dramatic  pictures,  such  as  Peace  with  Honour, 
and  Imperialism,  and,  by  diverting  their  minds,  laid 
to  rest  for  the  moment  republican  sentiments.  Under 
his  adroit  management  Victoria  came  more  among  her 
people — in  face  of  Gladstone's  straightforward  argu- 
ments she  drew  back  into  her  seclusion.  She  refused 
to  open  Gladstone's  Parliaments,  but  for  Beaconsfield 
she  was  present  at  least  every  other  year.  When 
Prince  Leopold  came  of  age,  Dizzy  asked  for  him 
£15,000  a  year  with  a  flourish  of  trumpets.  Leopold 
was  a  sage,  an  intellectual  of  the  rarest  merit;  he  was 
like  his  great  father  who  had  "  given  a  new  impulse  to 
the  course  of  civilization  " ;  and  the  pension  was  granted 
with  few  dissentients.  When  the  Duke  of  Connaught 
married  and  wanted  his  income  increased  the  request 
was  quietly  acceded  to,  for  there  was  a  rumour  that  he 
was  to  be  made  Viceroy  of  Ireland,  so  that  there  was 
no  Irish  opposition.  But  when  Leopold,  who  was 
created  by  the  Queen,  in  May  1881,  Duke  of  Albany— 
a  sinister  title,  for  all  the  royal  dukes  of  that  name  had 
died  young  or  been  murdered  ! — asked  the  usual  in- 
crease in  March  1882,  on  his  marriage  with  Helene  of 


248    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Wai  deck- Pyrmont,  there  was  strong  opposition.  Irish 
hopes  had  not  been  fulfilled  by  the  Connaughts,  and 
Irish  affairs  were  in  a  desperate  condition,  so  forty-two, 
mostly  Irish  patriots,  voted  against  the  royal  wishes, 
and  Labouchere  again  raised  the  question  of  what  be- 
came of  the  Civil  List  money  not  spent  by  the  Crown. 
Gladstone,  as  usual,  defended  the  Queen,  but  admitted 
that  she  took  private  possession  of  the  money  saved 
by  her  economies  on  the  Civil  List.  However,  in  a 
House  of  387  the  majority  was  345.  The  fact  remained 
that  under  Gladstone  these  discussions  arose. 

When  Beaconsfield  had  decided  to  go  to  the  country 
in  1880  he  cast  about  for  a  cry  which  might  be  popular, 
and  pitched  upon  Anti-Home  Rule.  These  words  had 
come  into  use  long  before,  Gladstone  saying  in  1871, 
"  I  am  not  quite  certain  what  is  meant  by  Home  Rule." 
At  the  moment  of  the  dissolution,  however,  there  was 
no  demand  for  it,  as  Ireland  had  suffered  from  bad 
potato  harvests  and  was  on  the  verge  of  starvation; 
Parnell,  already  a  personage,  had  his  hands  full  in 
devising  means  of  safeguarding  the  Irish,  and  gave  the 
somewhat  natural  advice  that  they  should  save  money 
as  much  as  possible,  and  pay  as  little  rent  as  possible, 
so  that  when  the  deadliest  pinch  came  food  could  still 
be  bought.  This  alienated  both  Liberal  and  Tory,  for 
the  sacredness  of  property  over  life  was  even  more 
pronounced  then  than  now.  Thus  the  anti-Home  Rule 
cry  interested  no  one  and  had  no  influence  on  the  elec- 
tion; the  people  were  too  occupied  with  their  sudden 
fear  of  the  two  recent  costly  wars  of  aggrandisement, 
with  the  suspicion  that  a  "  spirited  foreign  policy  "  was 


ANGER   AND  MORTIFICATION      249 

not  worth  paying  for,  and  their  sudden  reaction  in 
favour  of  Gladstone,  to  whom  they  turned  with 
expectation. 

Six  years  earlier  he  had  resigned  the  leadership  of 
the  Opposition  to  Lord  Granville,  a  member  of  the 
Upper  House,  and  the  Liberals  had  chosen  Lord  Hart- 
ington  to  lead  them  in  the  Commons.  Thus  Granville 
was  the  responsible  person.  Beaconsfield,  however, 
thought  that  Hartington  would  interfere  least  with  his 
line  of  policy,  and  advised  Victoria  to  send  for  him, 
which  she  did.  Gladstone  had  naturally  said  that  he 
would  not  take  office  under  any  one,  and  neither  Gran- 
ville nor  Hartington  had  any  fancy  to  have  Gladstone 
thundering  over  their  heads  from  a  back  bench,  and 
putting  them  right.  So  when  Hartington  had  his  inter- 
view with  the  Queen,  whose  face  he  could  only  see 
imperfectly,  as  she  stood  with  her  back  to  the  window, 
he  told  her  that  Gladstone  was  the  only  man  who  could 
form  a  Government  and  that  his  Government  would 
be  more  moderate  than  any  he  himself  could  get 
together.  The  Queen  implored  him  to  do  her  wishes, 
appealing  to  him  as  responsible  leader  of  the  Party, 
and  continued  to  do  so  in  answer  to  all  he  said.  She 
then  asked  if  he  was  sure  Mr.  Gladstone  would  not 
serve  under  him. 

"  I  can't  say  I  am  sure  he  wouldn't,  ma'am,  for  I've 
never  ventured  to  ask  him." 

"  Now  I  beg  you  will  ask  him  and  come  back  and  let 
me  know  what  he  says." 

The  next  day  Hartington  and  Granville  went  to 
Windsor,  and  both  said  it  was  impossible  for  either  to 


250    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

become  leader  while  Gladstone  was  at  hand,  and 
so  they  were  sent  back  to  summon  Gladstone.  The 
Queen  was  quite  courteous  to  him,  but  seemed  "  natural 
under  effort,  and  the  interview  ended  pleasantly,"  at 
least  on  the  surface. 

Beaconsfield  blamed  Hartington  bitterly  for  not 
taking  the  first  office,  saying  that  he  showed  a  want 
of  courage,  and  "abandoned  a  woman  in  her  hour 
of  need,"  and  he  moaned,  "All  becomes  chaos,  all 
becomes  chaos  when  I  am  away." 

Victoria  took  leave  of  him  that  April  of  1880  as 
though  all  peace  had  left  her,  and  offered  to  confer  on 
him  a  dukedom,  which  he  declined.  She  felt  that  her 
prospects  of  world-domination  were  gone,  that  there 
would  be  no  more  wars  of  expansion,  that  once  again 
the  wearisome  and,  from  her  point  of  view,  dangerous 
policy  of  internal  reform  would  replace  those  glorious 
dreams.  So  she  looked  about  for  a  means  of  counter- 
acting what  she  regarded  as  the  coming  retrograde 
policy,  and  she  turned  to  the  Army,  determined  to 
impress  upon  it  her  position  as  true  commander-in 
chief.  She  was  sure  that  misfortune  would  befall  this 
beloved  section  of  her  subjects,  that  the  Liberals 
wanted  to  reduce  it  in  numbers  and  in  power,  and 
her  fear  was  heightened  by  the  inclusion  of  Joseph 
Chamberlain,  popularly  regarded  as  a  Socialist,  in  the 
Cabinet.  He  and  Dilke  were  known  as  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Two,  because  they  were  inseparable,  and  each 
refused  office  unless  the  other  had  some  responsible 
post.  '  You  may  make  your  choice,"  said  Sir  Charles 
Dilke  to  Gladstone,  "  the  other  shall  be  leader  of  the 
Radicals." 


ANGER    AND  MORTIFICATION       251 

When  her  Majesty  saw  Gladstone  she  was  keen  on 
knowing  who  was  suggested  for  the  War  Office,  and 
evidently  disapproved  on  hearing  the  name  of  Childers, 
who  in  the  earlier  Liberal  administration  had  been  at 
the  Admiralty.  So  the  Queen  wooed  the  Army.  On 
July  13,  1880,  she  reviewed  1 1,000  Volunteers  in  Hyde 
Park;  on  the  28th  the  colours  of  the  24th  Regiment, 
lost  at  Isandhlwana  but  afterwards  recovered,  were 
taken  to  her  at  Osborne,  and  in  the  presence  of  the 
officers  she  decorated  them  with  a  wreath.  Before  the 
first  battalion  of  the  Rifle  Brigade  started  for  India, 
August  2 1 ,  she  visited  it  on  board  the  troopship  fumna, 
inspected  their  quarters  and  was  solicitous  for  their 
comfort.  In  1881  she  held  a  review  in  Queen's  Park, 
Edinburgh,  of  40,000  Scottish  Volunteers  under  diffi- 
cult circumstances,  for  the  rain  descended  in  torrents ; 
she,  however,  remained  to  the  end,  and  for  three  hours 
let  the  rain  pelt  upon  her,  so  that  by  the  time  she  got 
back  to  Holyrood  her  carriage  contained  a  pool  of 
water,  and  streams  of  it  ran  off  her  skirt. 

She  kept  a  watchful  eye  over  Childers,  disapproving 
every  suggested  reform,  and  setting  herself  strongly 
against  all  reorganization.  In  her  fear  of  change  she 
identified  herself  with  all  that  had  been,  standing  up 
for  old  abuses;  as  Sir  Sidney  Lee  says,  "  No  military 
reform  escaped  her  censorious  vigilance."  She  even 
went  so  far  as  to  disapprove  of  the  abolition  of  the 
use  of  the  "  cat "  as  a  punishment.  This  abuse  had 
gradually  diminished,  but  an  officer  could  still  order 
fifty  lashes  with  the  cat  to  be  inflicted  on  the  bare 
back,  and  scandals  arose  in  the  case  of  bad-tempered 
officers.  Part  of  her  letter  ran  :  The  Queen  hopes 


252    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

"that  officers  on  service  may  not  5e  deprived  of  the 
only  power  they  possess  of  keeping  young  troops  in 
order,  viz.  by  inflicting  corporal  punishment  in  the 
extreme  cases  of  cowardice,  treachery,  plundering,  or 
neglect  of  duty  on  sentry.  The  Queen  hates  the 
system  of  flogging,  but  sees  no  alternative  in  extreme 
cases  on  active  service." 

The  punishment  was,  however,  abolished  in  1881. 

We  are  wiser  about  punishment  in  this  generation, 
though  it  is  only  a  few  months  since  that  Lord 
Charles  Beresford  sought  to  glorify  this  brutalization 
of  men. 

When  it  was  desired  to  abolish  the  abuse  of  distri- 
buting Army  rank  and  pay  as  rewards  to  those  whose 
qualifications  were  invisible,  Victoria  strongly  opposed 
it,  saying  that  if  there  were  abuses  they  could  easily 
be  remedied.  A  case  in  point  was  that  of  a  General 
Macdonald,  who  had  never  done  military  duty  as  a 
general,  but  had  for  many  years  been  private  secretary 
to  the  Duke  of  Cambridge.  To  his  honours  had  been 
added  the  title  and  pay — to  the  amount  of  £1000  a 
year — of  honorary  colonel,  and  a  question  was  asked 
in  the  House  of  Commons  about  it.  The  Queen,  then 
at  Balmoral,  wrote  Childers  a  long  letter  demanding 
that  he  would  not  pledge  himself  to  any  reform  in  this 
matter,  saying  that  she  was  strongly  opposed  to  the 
abolition  of  those  honorary  colonelcies,  that  to  abolish 
them  would  be  to  destroy  all  esprit  de  corps  and  to 
weaken  the  pride  which  the  officers  feel  in  the  regi- 
ments. How  could  she  have  attained  to  such  a  conclu- 
sion, seeing  the  facts  of  the  case  ?  What  esprit  de  corps 


ANGER    AND  MORTIFICATION      253 

could  there  be  between  a  regiment  and  an  honorary 
colonel  who  was  in  reality  a  secretary  ? 

There  was  delay  in  posting  this  letter,  so  her 
Majesty  telegraphed  in  cipher  to  the  War  Minister. 
The  telegram  arrived  too  late,  the  question  having 
been  asked  and  answered;  but  Childers  wrote  to  her, 
saying  that,  had  he  received  it  in  time,  his  answer 
would  have  been  more  vague.  Yet  we  are  often  told 
that  the  Queen  did  not  influence  the  Government. 

When  in  the  winter  of  that  year  Childers  prepared 
a  scheme  for  linking  battalions  and  associating  the 
names  of  counties  or  towns  with  regiments,  he  again 
found  himself  faced  with  an  annoyed  and  forbidding 
Queen. 

The  plan  was  pushed  through,  however,  and  resulted 
in  an  immediate  accession  of  recruits;  and  Childers, 
driven  to  desperation  by  the  unceasing  and  unintelli- 
gent heckling  both  in  Parliament  and  from  the  Throne, 
put  his  position  plainly  before  the  country  in  a  speech 
at  Pontefract,  on  January  19,  1882.  It  was  a  justifi- 
cation of  the  British  constitutional  attitude  as  against 
the  German  claim  that  the  monarch  is  in  absolute 
command  of  the  Army.  To  such  men  as  Gladstone 
and  Childers,  strong,  self-assertive  and  determined, 
the  English  people  owe  a  great  debt  of  gratitude  for 
the  saving  of  our  army  from  relapsing  into  an  ineffi- 
cient body,  given  over  to  obsolete  custom  and  ruled 
by  those  whose  only  claim  was  that  of  high  descent. 

In  the  course  of  the  speech  referred  to  Childers 
said  :  "  It  is  said  that  the  Secretaries  of  State  for  War 
are  encroaching  on  the  functions  of  others.  The 


254    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Army,  they  say,  is  the  army  of  the  Crown ;  we  Secre- 
taries of  State  want  to  make  it  the  army  of  the 
Commons.  The  Crown,  they  say,  commands  the  Army 
through  the  commander-in-chief ;  the  Secretary  of 
State  is  a  mere  financial  officer  who  has  gradually 
intruded  on  the  province  of  the  Crown.  All  this  is 
mere  delusion.  The  Queen  is  the  head  of  the  Army, 
the  head  of  the  Navy  and  of  every  branch  of  the  public 
service;  as  such  she  can  do  no  wrong.  But  that  is 
because  all  her  acts  are  the  acts  of  her  responsible 
ministers.  The  doctrine  of  personal  government 
which  you  have  seen  so  undisguisedly  claimed  in 
Prussia  is  absolutely  unknown  in  our  Constitu- 
tion. .  .  .  Under  the  Secretary  of  State  are  three 
departments,  the  heads  of  which  are  equally  respon- 
sible to  him.  The  Chief  Officer  Commanding,  for  the 
Military  Department;  the  Surveyor-General,  for  the 
Ordnance  and  Supply  Department ;  and  the  Financial 
Secretary  for  the  Finance  Department.  To  say  that 
the  Secretary  of  State  has  no  controlling  power  in 
such  matters,  when  he  is  responsible  to  Parliament  for 
any  improper  exercise  of  the  Queen's  prerogative  in 
regard  to  them,  is  manifestly  absurd." 

The  Queen's  greatest  anxiety  at  the  beginning  of 
the  new  Government  was  that  it  should  carry  on  the 
same  foreign  policy  as  its  forerunner;  especially  that 
it  should  bring  to  a  close  in  a  glorious  manner  the  two 
wars.  A  great  majority,  however,  clamoured  for  the 
recall  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  and  every  one  was  dumb 
with  surprise  to  find  Gladstone  deciding  to  retain  him 
at  his  post.  There  were  two  reasons  for  this  :  the  one 


ANGER   AND  MORTIFICATION      255 

he  gave  was  that  steps  to  confederation  were  being 
taken,  and  Frere  must  stay  to  complete  the  scheme. 
The  second  reason — which  he  did  not  give — was  that 
Victoria  did  not  cease  to  urge  upon  him  her  confidence 
in  the  commander,  and  her  desire  for  what  she  regarded 
as  a  strong  policy.  The  enemy  by  this  time  were  no 
longer  Zulus,  but  Boers.  The  royal  chagrin  was 
bitter  when  Frere  was  recalled  in  July,  and  still  more 
bitter  when,  after  many  vicissitudes,  a  peace  was 
concluded  the  following  year  without  its  being  secured 
at  the  point  of  the  sword. 

Over  Afghanistan  her  distress  was  even  keener,  for 
the  decision  of  the  Government  was  to  return  to  the 
original  Anglo-Indian  policy  which  had  been  found 
successful  before  the  war.  So  Lord  Roberts'  brave 
march  to  Kabul,  and  thence  to  the  relief  of  the  British 
at  Kandahar,  was  followed  by  the  appointment  of  a 
new  Amir  and  the  evacuation  of  the  country  by  the 
British,  a  policy  which  has  so  far  proved  a  good  one. 

This  withdrawing  after  such  a  desperate  attempt  to 
annex  Afghanistan  to  India  was  a  terrible  grievance 
to  Victoria,  and  she  refused  to  discuss  it  with  her 
ministers.  Lord  Hartington  said,  after  an  interview 
in  October  1880,  that  she  was  very  gracious,  but 
avoided  talking  about  Kandahar  with  him,  and  he 
feared  she  was  getting  into  the  habit  of  refusing  to 
talk  over  with  her  ministers  any  subject  which  was 
unpalatable  to  her.  Lord  Esher  commented  upon  this 
that  there  was  probably  some  wisdom  in  it,  as  she  knew 
that  she  or  the  Ministry  must  give  way,  and  that  she 
had  no  chance  against  a  united  Cabinet. 


256     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

When  the  decision  was  carried  into  effect  Victoria 
could  not  bring  herself  to  face  it  squarely,  and  abso- 
lutely refused  to  allow  her  ministers  to  publish  the 
matter,  which  threw  them  into  an  awkward  predicament 
in  January  1881,  when  the  Queen's  Speech  was  being 
prepared.  The  country  had  a  right  to  know  so  impor- 
tant an  event,  and  to  let  it  leak  out  through  report 
rather  than  in  the  legitimate  way  was  sufficient  to 
discredit  any  Parliament.  On  Gladstone  including 
in  the  speech  that  Kandahar  had  been  evacuated,  she 
telegraphed  from  Osborne  that  she  strongly  objected 
to  it;  her  ministers  replied  that  four  months  had 
elapsed  since  the  withdrawal,  and  it  was  absolutely 
necessary  to  announce  the  fact  now;  to  which  she 
returned  that  she  would  agree  to  a  modified  form  of 
words  which  did  not  announce  our  withdrawal. 

Hartington  and  Gladstone  did  not  know  what  to  do ; 
should  they  go  to  Osborne  and  see  what  could  be  done 
with  this  autocratic  personage,  or  should  they  further 
prorogue  Parliament  until  she  had  the  courage  to  face 
the  universal  knowledge  ?  At  that  very  hour  a  Privy 
Council  was  being  held  at  Osborne,  and  Sir  Henry 
Ponsonby  declared  that  he  had  never  seen  her  Majesty 
so  angry  as  she  was  then.  Possibly  the  Privy  Coun- 
cillors, met  to  discuss  the  speech,  helped  to  cause  this 
anger,  and  also  helped  to  induce  a  more  reasonable 
frame  of  mind,  for  at  six  o'clock  a  telegram  was  put 
into  Gladstone's  hands  giving  assent. 

With  Gladstone's  Government  came  trouble  in 
Egypt.  When  England  acquired  a  monetary  interest 
in  that  country  it  was  necessary  to  have  some  control 


ANGER   AND  MORTIFICATION      257 

over  Egyptian  finance,  which  Beaconsfield  had  found 
in  a  bankrupt  condition.  French  influence  had  for 
long  been  strong  in  the  country,  and  in  1879  the  Dual 
Control  of  Finance  (England  and  France)  had  been 
instituted.  But  Turkey  was  bankrupt  in  her  influence 
also,  having  ruled  with  her  usual  injustice  and  bar- 
barity, so  the  whole  great  land  of  Egypt  and  the 
Sudan  was  ripe  for  rebellion.  The  army  under  Arabi 
Pasha  started  the  revolution,  and  England's  lack  of  real 
knowledge  of  the  country  caused  this  to  be  regarded 
as  a  mere  military  revolt.  There  was  a  massacre  at 
Alexandria,  and  when  Britain  prepared  to  restore  order 
by  bombarding  the  town,  the  French  fleet  refused  to 
act  with  it  and  steamed  away.  Gladstone  declared  that 
the  Sultan  must  see  after  his  own  possessions.  France 
suggested  a  European  Conference,  and  the  Sultan  of 
Turkey,  fearing  that  he  would  get  short  shrift  at  the 
hands  of  Europe,  and  regarding  England  as  his  friend 
through  thick  and  thin,  alwrays  ready  to  pull  his  chest- 
nuts out  of  the  fire  for  him,  refused  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  a  Conference  and  made  the  offer  to  England 
that  it  should  take  exclusive  control  of  Egyptian 
administrative  affairs.  Gladstone  and  Granville,  hor- 
rified at  the  idea  that  they  were  to  spend  valuable 
time,  money  and  men  in  reducing  a  Turkish  province 
to  order  for  Turkey,  refused  pointblank  and  without 
consulting  their  Cabinet.  The  very  thought  must 
have  been  horrible  to  Gladstone. 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  this  high-handed  action  pro- 
voked the  Queen,  who  was  so  willing  to  favour  Turkey, 
and  who,  imbued  with  the  Beaconsfieldian  policy  of 


258    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Empire  extension,  would  have  taken  all  that  was 
offered,  at  whatever  cost,  in  the  hope  that  it  would 
lead  to  more.  So  there  was  a  sharp  disagreement 
between  her  and  Gladstone  at  the  very  outset,  a 
disagreement  which  widened  and  deepened  over 
Egypt  until  Victoria  regarded  Gladstone  much  as 
he  looked  upon  the  Sultan,  as  "  the  greatest  murderer 
in  Europe." 

The  Queen  did  not  cease  to  press  the  policy  of  her 
late  minister  upon  her  new  Cabinet,  and  she  endured 
mental  tortures  for  fear  that  her  efforts  would  be  of 
no  avail.  She  turned  again  to  the  Army,  demanding 
that  the  smallest  details  should  be  submitted  to  her, 
for  she  distrusted  Childers,  especially  now  that  it  was 
necessary  to  put  down  Arabi  Pasha  before  anything 
else  could  be  thought  of.  A  commander-in-chief  of 
the  expedition  had  to  be  chosen,  and  she  refused  to 
sanction  any  appointment  until  she  had  diligently 
studied  the  careers  and  qualities  of  all  her  chief  sol- 
diers, eventually  agreeing  to  the  Cabinet's  choice  of 
Lord  Wolseley.  She  worried  over  transports,  rations, 
hospitals,  equipments;  she  wrote  and  telegraphed 
incessantly  to  the  War  Office,  sending  one  day  as 
many  as  seventeen  letters !  in  fact,  she  did  not  cease 
to  inform  her  already  harassed  and  hard-working  ser- 
vants that  they  knew  nothing  of  their  work,  and  must 
be  given  her  unsleeping  surveillance. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  Childers  was  loyalty  itself, 
but  it  would  have  been  interesting  on  the  seventeen- 
letter  day  to  have  heard  his  language,  say  at  the  tenth 
letter.  After  that  his  sensibilities  must  have  become 


ANGER    AND  MORTIFICATION      259 

blunted,  and  his  overcharged  feelings  too  congested 
for  expression. 

In  all  this  getting  ready  what  had  become  of  her 
Majesty's  deputy,  her  cousin  the  Duke  of  Cambridge, 
that  she  did  the  overlooking  herself?  She  had  evi- 
dently come  to  regard  him  as  an  inefficient  screen 
between  her  and  her  Ministry,  and  indeed  he  never 
had  been  strong.  Like  so  many  military  and  royal 
Germans,  his  mind  was  burdened  with  straps  and 
buckles  and  lace.  The  present  Kaiser  has  always  been 
keen  over  these  things,  spending  earnest  thought  and 
much  talk  over  the  relative  importance  of  two,  or  three, 
buttons  on  some  part  of  a  uniform,  as  to  whether  a 
strap  should  be  four  inches  or  four  and  a  half  inches 
long,  and  such  stupendous  trifles.  Like  his  father, 
the  Duke  of  Cambridge  was  noted  for  talking  loudly 
in  public  places,  and  was  far  more  audible  often  at 
the  theatre  than  were  the  actors;  and  like  many  men 
who  have  been  stay-at-home  soldiers,  his  ideas  upon 
military  matters  were  somewhat  hazy.  He  loyally 
upheld  his  royal  cousin  in  holding  fast  to  ancient 
custom,  and  when,  after  the  lesson  taught  during  this 
first  Egyptian  campaign,  it  was  suggested  and  pressed 
that  the  betraying  scarlet  uniform  should  be  abolished, 
he  offered  what  some  outspoken  person  called  "  a 
senseless  opposition  " ;  saying  that  he  thought  it  good 
for  the  soldier  in  action  that  he  should  be  visible  to  the 
enemy.  He  was,  with  equal  reason,  totally  against 
raising  the  standard  of  age  to  nineteen. 

Victoria  had  insisted  that  her  son,  the  Duke  of 
Connaught,  should  lead  the  Guards'  Brigade,  and  that 


260    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

the  Duke  of  Teck  should  have  a  responsible  post  on 
Wolseley's  staff,  so  in  addition  to  the  constant  fussing 
over  everything  that  had  any  relation  to  the  war,  the 
Queen  was  also  anxious  about  her  son.  "  My  nerves 
were  strained  to  such  a  pitch  by  the  intensity  of  my 
anxiety  and  suspense  that  they  seemed  to  feel  as 
though  they  were  all  alive." 

Tel-el-Kebir  was  fought  and  won,  and  her  Majesty 
celebrated  it  as  she  had  years  before  celebrated  the 
fall  of  Sebastopol,  with  a  bonfire  on  the  top  of  Craig 
Gowan  and  many  other  rejoicings,  writing  in  her 
journal — 

"  Felt  unbounded  joy  and  gratitude  for  God's  great 
goodness  and  mercy." 

It  was  natural  that  she  should  say  and  think  this— 
but  now,  since  the  beginning  of  the  Great  War,  it  is 
only  possible  to  feel  that  to  join  the  name  of  the 
Christian's  God  with  war  at  all  is  a  blasphemy. 
Kaiser  William  has  shown  us  that  the  only  god  of 
War  is  a  revolting  devil. 

When  the  Egyptian  Campaign  was  over  Queen  Vic- 
toria rewarded  her  three  relatives  for  their  share  in  it, 
the  Duke  of  Cambridge  being  appointed  personal  aide- 
de-camp  to  herself,  which,  as  his  work  had  been  entirely 
hidden  by  her  Majesty's  own  industry,  was,  as  some 
paper  wrote,  "like  decorating  the  King  of  the  Un- 
known Regions  for  his  share  in  the  Transit  of  Venus. 
Practically  he  did  as  much  in  the  one  event  as  in  the 
other."  A  comic  paper  stated  that  while  our  troops 
were  winning  Tel-el-Kebir,  the  Duke,  "  aware  some- 
how of  fighting,  rose  two  hours  earlier  than  usual, 


ANGER    AND   MORTIFICATION       261 

shouldered  his  umbrella,  charged  an  imaginary  enemy 
at  the  head  of  imaginary  troops  and  fell  with  an 
imaginary  bullet  in  his  shoulder."  The  Duke  had 
been  accused  of  going  on  parade  on  a  wet  day  with 
his  umbrella  up,  and  so  that  useful  domestic  article 
was  never  forgotten  when  any  story  was  to  be  told 
against  him.  Thus  the  next  year,  when  the  trooping 
of  the  colours  was  countermanded  by  him  because  of 
the  rain,  the  comment  was,  "  The  troops  were  ready, 
the  public  were  waiting,  but  all  were  told  to  go  home. 
Was  a  certain  historical  umbrella  necessary  ? " 

The  Duke  of  Connaught  had  been  mentioned  three 
times  in  dispatches,  was  given  the  C.B.,  and  received 
the  thanks  of  Parliament.  Yet  a  sceptical  public  had 
much  to  say  over  a  report  that  he  had  been  well 
guarded,  that  by  order  of  a  "  high  personage  his  troops 
had  been  so  arranged  at  the  battle  as  to  prevent  him 
from  incurring  danger."  This  naturally  caused  lively 
indignation  in  royal  circles,  and  both  Wolseley  and 
Childers  emphatically  denied  its  truth,  the  former  say- 
ing, "  He  took  his  chance  like  any  one  else."  But  the 
public  were  not  convinced,  and  there  was  some  excuse 
for  this  when  one  remembers  the  question  addressed 
to  Lieutenant  Carey  after  the  killing  of  the  Prince 
Imperial — 

"Where  is  the  Prince?" 

"  Dead,  sir." 

1  Then  why  are  you  alive  ?  " 

This  was  sufficient  to  destroy  reliance  on  the  word 
of  a  superior  officer  on  any  such  matters,  for  people 
naturally  felt  that  such  would  protect  his  own  reputa- 


262     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

tion  by  putting  such  a  precious  charge  as  a  royal  prince 
in  a  safe  corner. 

Victoria  also  thoughtfully  devised  the  decoration  of 
the  Royal  Red  Cross  for  nurses  who  had  shown  great 
service,  which  was  bestowed  upon  fournurses,  also  upon 
Princess  Louise,  the  Duchess  of  Albany  and  Princess 
Frederica  of  Hanover  for  their  services  in  the  First- 
Aid  Society  for  sick  and  wounded  soldiers.  She 
distributed  medals  and  reviewed  the  returned  troops. 
Her  keen  desire  was  for  the  drastic  punishment  of 
Arabi  and  the  other  principal  rebels.  '  The  whole 
state  of  Egypt  is  full  of  difficulties,  and  we  must  take 
great  care  that,  short  of  annexation,  our  position  is 
firmly  established  there,  and  that  we  shall  not  have  to 
shed  precious  blood  and  expend  much  money  for 
nothing,"  was  one  of  her  exhortations. 

Arabi  Pasha  was  a  rebel  against  the  unutterable 
cruelty  of  the  Turks;  his  movement  "was  in  essence, 
a  genuine  revolt  against  misgovernment "  and  "was 
not  essentially  anti-European,"  said  Evelyn  Baring 
(Lord  Cromer).  He  had  headed  a  national  movement 
against  a  foreign  oppressor,  and  the  Government  could 
not  force  itself  to  carrying  out  the  extreme  measures 
urged  by  Victoria.  He  was  brought  to  trial  and  con- 
demned to  death  by  the  Egyptian  Government,  but 
Lord  Dufferin,  preventing  the  carrying  out  of  the 
capital  sentence,  sent  him  to  Ceylon,  whence  he 
returned  after  some  years  and  died  in  Egypt. 

Gladstone  felt  a  great  repugnance  against  burdening 
the  country  with  any  aggressive  policy  in  Egypt;  yet 
it  was  evident  that  peace  in  Egypt  could  only  be 


ANGER    AND  MORTIFICATION      268 

secured  by  the  retention  of  a  British  force  there. 
Lord  Dufferin  recommended  the  formation  of  a  native 
force  of  about  6000  men  with  a  proportion  of  British 
officers,  and  a  semi-military  gendarmerie  of  4,400  men. 
Evelyn  Wood  became  Sirdar  of  the  former  and  Valen- 
tine Baker  was  made  Inspector-General  of  the  latter, 
the  intention  being  to  train  native  soldiers  to  do 
Egyptian  work  for  Egypt,  and  that  England  should 
gradually  evacuate  a  country  to  which  its  only  right 
was  the  desire  of  the  Sultan  to  shift  his  burdens  upon 
her  shoulders.  The  Queen  strongly  resented  the  idea 
of  evacuation,  but  could  do  nothing. 

The  revolt  of  the  Arabs,  however,  continued;  it 
had  but  moved  its  location  from  Egypt  to  the  Sudan. 
The  tribes  in  that  vast  region  were  regarded  simply  as 
a  slave  nursery  by  Turkey  and  as  material  for  taxation. 
The  people,  forced  to  grow  corn  for  their  oppressors, 
died  of  starvation  themselves.  Thus,  when  the  Mahdi 
came  to  the  front  as  their  deliverer,  he  at  once  se- 
cured an  enormous  army.  The  Khedive  now  wanted 
England  to  extend  her  assistance  and  reconquer  the 
Sudan  for  him.  Evelyn  Baring  advised  against  it; 
the  Government  saw  no  reason  for  saddling  England 
with  such  a  burden,  but  Victoria,  dreaming  of  an 
African  empire  as  large  as  that  of  India,  did  not 
cease  to  urge  the  sending  out  of  armies. 

In  January  1883  an  Englishman,  Hicks  Pasha,  had 
been  dispatched  by  the  Egyptian  authorities,  entirely 
against  his  own  military  judgment,  with  10,000 
Egyptian  troops  against  the  Mahdi,  and  the  army  had 
been  practically  annihilated,  upon  which  our  Govern- 


264     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

ment  proposed  sending  a  Governor-General,  meaning 
Charles  Gordon,  "  which,  if  it  had  been  accepted,  would 
have  saved  the  Sudan  from  anarchy  and  rebellion,  and 
England  from  expense  in  life  and  money,  but  the 
Egyptian  Government  declined  his  services." 

At  this  time  over  the  millions  of  miles  of  the  Sudan 
the  tribes  roamed  at  will,  but  there  were  some  small 
towns,  more  or  less  fortified,  in  which  were  located 
forces  of  Egyptian  soldiers  and  some  Europeans  who 
had  gone  there  for  trading  or  other  purposes ;  and,  as 
in  1874  and  1878,  Gordon  had  been  Governor-General 
under  the  Egyptian  Government  of  some  of  the 
provinces,  he  was  more  liked  by  the  Arabs  than  by  the 
Turks. 

The  Government  felt  that  their  evacuation  plan  was 
the  best  that  could  be  devised,  but  first  the  isolated 
garrisons  must  be  extricated,  and,  in  spite  of  Egypt's 
refusal  of  Gordon,  they  asked  him  if  he  could  do  this 
work.  During  those  two  years  and  after  it  was  quite 
easy  to  allocate  blame,  to  fasten  it,  as  the  Queen  did, 
upon  one  man,  but  it  is  time  now  that  the  matter  should 
at  least  be  studied  from  both  sides  and  not  from  party 
feeling,  or  personal  prejudice.  Gordon  knew  the 
Sudan  as  intimately — and  the  intimacy  was  of  the 
slenderest — as  such  a  huge  country  could  be  known 
at  that  time,  and  when  at  twenty-four  hours'  notice 
he  started  from  England  on  his  mission,  in  January 
1884,  he  said — 

"  The  Mahdi's  forces  will  fall  to  pieces  of  them- 
selves !  " 
1  Events  in  the  Life  of  Charles  G.  Gordon.     By  H.  W.  Gordon. 


ANGER    AND   MORTIFICATION       265 

The  cause  of  all  the  trouble  was  the  want  of  know- 
ledge on  all  sides.  The  Sudan  with  its  heat  and  cold, 
its  floods  and  droughts,  was  an  unknown  country ;  the 
Arab  and  other  forces,  the  influence  of  the  Mahdi,  the 
aims  of  the  fighters,  the  character  of  Gordon  himself, 
all  were  unknown;  even  Gordon  could  not  diagnose 
the  case.  He  himself  was  not  in  the  slightest  under- 
stood by  the  men  who  sent  him.  They  knew  that  he 
had  been  successful  before,  that  he  had  an  influence 
in  the  Sudan,  and  that  every  one  said  he  was  the  man ; 
as  far  as  they  could  tell  he  was.  Later  they  knew  he 
was  not.  Energetic,  upright,  religious,  he  was  yet 
subject  to  enthusiasms  which  blinded  his  judgment,  he 
naturally  trusted  the  people  about  him,  and  he  acted 
upon  his  instincts  rather  than  upon  reason. 

I  remember  well  the  terrible  excitement  about  his 
fate,  the  bitter  denunciations,  the  unjust  charges,  but 
those  who  knew  him  best  thought  afterwards  that  he 
was  sent  too  late  for  his  powers  to  cope  with  the  situa- 
tion. Here  is  one  example  of  his  want  of  stability  of 
idea.  In  an  interview  given,  just  before  starting,  to  a 
representative  of  The  Pall  Mall  Gazette  he  said — 

'  There  is  one  subject  on  which  I  cannot  imagine 
any  one  can  differ.  This  is  the  impolicy  of  announ- 
cing our  intention  to  evacuate  Khartoum.  Even  if  we 
were  bound  to  do  so  we  should  have  said  nothing  about 
it.  The  moment  it  is  known  that  we  have  given  up 
the  game  every  man  will  go  over  to  the  Mahdi.  All 
men  worship  the  rising  sun.  .  .  .  The  difficulties  of 
evacuation  will  be  enormously  increased,  if  indeed  the 
withdrawal  of  our  garrison  is  not  rendered  impossible." 


266     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

No  sooner,  however,  was  he  in  the  midst  of  the 
disturbed  country  than  he  repudiated  this  by  calling 
the  authorities  together  at  Berber  on  February  i3th, 
announced  to  them  the  intention  of  abandoning  the 
Sudan,  and  followed  this  by  drawing  up  a  procla- 
mation appointing  six  of  the  most  influential  men  to 
administer  the  government  of  the  province,  subject  to 
the  Governor-General.  The  whole  of  the  notables 
present  at  the  meeting  threw  their  interest  on  the  side 
of  the  Mahdi  as  opportunity  arose. 

Gordon's  one  mission  was  to  bring  the  garrisons 
away,  yet  no  sooner  was  he  in  Egypt  than  he  added 
to  this  programme  the  intention  of  forming  a  pro- 
visional Government  for  the  Sudan,  and  stuck  to  this 
to  the  end,  refusing  to  leave  Khartoum  until  this 
impossible  task  was  accomplished. 

In  his  earlier  period  of  authority  Gordon  had  earned 
the  hatred  of  a  man  named  Zobeir,  by  putting  down 
a  revolt,  thus  causing  the  execution  of  Zobeir's  son  and 
the  loss  of  property  to  him.  On  reaching  Egypt  this 
time  he  met  Zobeir,  and  for  fear  of  complications 
asked  the  Egyptian  Government  to  send  the  old  rebel 
to  Cyprus  out  of  the  way.  This  was  refused,  and 
Gordon  thought  the  safest  plan  would  then  be  to 
take  Zobeir  to  Khartoum  with  him.  Those,  however, 
who  saw  the  hatred  in  the  Arab's  eyes,  judged  that 
such  a  course  would  mean  the  death  of  one  of  the  two 
men,  and  Zobeir  was  kept  in  Cairo.  Gordon  must 
have  known  that  Zobeir  was  a  man  of  power,  the  man 
to  lead  his  countrymen,  and  later  urgently  begged  the 
English  Government  to  send  him  out  to  Khartoum  as 


ANGER    AND  MORTIFICATION       267 

Governor-General.  The  Egyptian  government  sup- 
ported this,  but  our  Cabinet,  wanting  Gordon  to  con- 
fine himself  to  his  mission,  and  knowing  Zobeir  to  be 
a  great  slave-dealer,  refused. 

Thus  Gordon,  by  changing  his  policy,  and  the  Eng- 
lish ministers,  by  not  changing  theirs,  each  contributed 
to  the  final  result. 

The  revealing  of  his  hand  shut  the  Sudan  to  Gordon, 
and  a  little  more  than  a  month  after  his  arrival  in 
Khartoum  the  tribes  all  around  had  joined  the  Mahdi. 
He  had  in  the  first  weeks  sent  away  2,500  people,  but 
he  still  had  with  him  nearly  10,000  troops,  there  being 
left  in  the  town  at  the  end  about  4000  Bashi-Bazouks, 
nearly  3000  irregulars,  and  many  black  soldiers. 

In  April  1884  there  was  a  strong  desire  to  send  a 
relief  expedition  out,  and  Gladstone  was  in  favour  of 
sending  cavalry  to  Berber  to  ensure  Gordon's  safety, 
but  the  Cabinet  decided  against  it. 

Great  pressure  was  put  on  the  Government  by  the 
Queen,  by  the  Opposition  and  by  the  people,  until 
at  last  an  expedition  was  decided  upon.  Then  was 
fought  "the  battle  of  the  routes,"  when  the  generals 
sat  in  council  in  London  and  squabbled  with  unabated 
tenacity  for  month  after  month  whether  the  force 
should  go  up  the  Nile  or  through  the  desert,  so  it 
was  August  before  a  start  was  made,  and  at  long  last  the 
passage  up  the  Nile  began. 

In  Gordon's  Journal  there  are  many  curious  pas- 
sages about  the  expedition.  In  September  he  wrote  : 
"  I  think  I  can  say  truly  that  I  never  asked  for  a 
British  expedition."  In  October  he  asked  what  it  was 


268     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

coming  out  for,  saying  he  could  not  understand  it. 
If  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  him  he  deprecated 
it;  he  could  get  away  at  any  time,  adding  that  if  it 
did  reach  Khartoum  he  would  not  go  away  with  it 
unless  he  could  take  the  whole  garrison  with  him. 
"  No  one  can  judge  of  the  waste  of  money  and  expense 
of  life  in  the  present  expedition ;  it  is  an  utter  waste  of 
both,  but  it  is  due  to  the  indecision  of  the  Government." 
"If  the  Europeans  like  to  go  to  the  Equator  I  will 
give  them  steamers,  but  I  will  not  leave  these  people 
after  all  they  have  gone  through."  "  I  decline  to 
agree  that  the  expedition  comes  for  my  relief ;  it  comes 
for  the  relief  of  the  garrisons,  which  I  failed  to  accom- 
plish. I  expect  her  Majesty's  Government  are  in  a 
precious  rage  with  me  for  holding  out  and  forcing  their 
hand." 

He  frequently  gave  the  people  in  Khartoum  per- 
mission to  join  the  Mahdi,  and  gradually  about  20,000 
drifted  away,  leaving  14,000  in  all  in  the  town. 

For  six  months  the  Mahdi's  army  was  stationed 
around  them  waiting,  and  the  garrison's  food  was 
getting  very  low.  But  when  Gordon  knew  that  the 
British  force  was  nearing  him  he  ordered  that  the 
greater  part  of  it  should  be  sent  to  Berber,  and  thus 
it  was  a  comparatively  small  number  which  at  last  got 
to  Khartoum.  What  Gordon  knew  the  Mahdi  knew, 
and  two  days  before  the  arrival  of  the  British,  the 
latter  judged  that  it  was  time  to  strike.  By  treachery 
or  by  attack  his  troops  entered  the  town  and  Gordon 
was  shot. 

'  Too  late !  "  screamed  every  one  as  they  turned  to 


ANGER    AND  MORTIFICATION      269 

rend  the  Government  and  in  especial  to  rend  Glad- 
stone. But  late  was  not  really  the  word.  Had  the 
expedition  arrived  months  earlier  the  result  would 
probably  have  been  the  same,  and  in  no  case  could 
the  relief  column  have  carried  sufficient  food  to  help 
the  garrison  to  march  away.  There  were  so  many 
"  ifs  "  in  the  whole  matter,  and  applicable  no  less  to 
Gordon  himself  than  to  the  English  Government  and 
the  English  generals. 

Gordon's  temperament  appealed  to  the  public,  and, 
combined  with  his  religion,  his  championship  of  a 
forlorn  hope  and  his  long  resistance  of  the  wild  desert 
forces,  enshrined  him  in  the  national  imagination  as 
a  hero  and  a  martyr.  It  was  a  time  of  emotion,  not  of 
thought,  and  even  now  the  generation  of  that  day  will 
refuse  to  recognize  anything  but  the  emotional  aspect. 

Of  all  the  Queen  gave  way  most  unrestrainedly  to 
her  emotions.  Her  first  act  was  to  send  a  telegram  to 
Gladstone  and  Lord  Hartington,  not  in  cypher  as  usual 
but  in  plain  English — a  small  and  unworthy  act — 
blaming  them  entirely  for  what  had  happened,  saying 
that  it  was  too  fearful  to  realize  that  the  fall  of  Khar- 
toum might  have  been  prevented  and  many  precious 
lives  saved  if  they  had  taken  earlier  action.  She  put 
the  whole  burden  on  her  Prime  Minister's  shoulders, 
and  saw  in  him  nothing  less  than  a  murderer. 

She  wrote  also  to  Miss  Gordon,  the  general's  sister, 
a  letter  filled  with  regret,  grief,  anger  and  extrava- 
gance. "  How  shall  I  write  to  you  or  how  shall  I 
attempt  to  express  what  I  feel?  To  think  of  your  dear, 
noble,  heroic  brother,  who  served  his  country  and  his 


270    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Queen  so  truly,  so  heroically,  with  a  self-sacrifice  so 
edifying  to  the  world,  to  think  that  he  was  not  saved ! 
That  the  promises  of  help  were  not  kept — promises 
of  which  I  so  often  and  so  constantly  reminded  those 
who  should  have  fulfilled  them ;  ah !  it  is  to  me  grief 
inexpressible.  Indeed  it  has  made  me  ill.  .  .  .  Would 
you  express  to  your  other  sisters  and  your  elder 
brother  my  true  sympathy,  and  what  I  do  so  keenly 
feel — the  stain  left  upon  England  for  your  dear 
brother's  cruel,  though  heroic  fate." 

Miss  Gordon  sent  her  brother's  Bible  as  a  present 
to  the  Queen,  and  in  July  sent  his  diary  for  her 
Majesty's  perusal.  The  reading  of  it,  with  the  curious 
evidence  it  gives  of  the  writer's  character,  his  change- 
ability and  obstinacy,  in  no  way  modified  her  admira- 
tion for  him,  and  she  wrote  again  of  her  mortification 
at  the  vacillation  of  her  ministers. 

Henry  Gordon,  at  the  end  of  his  book,  "Events  in 
the  Life  of  Charles  G.  Gordon"  put  the  chief  blame 
on  the  refusal  of  the  Egyptian  Government  to  accept 
General  Gordon's  help  when  the  British  Government 
offered  it  in  1883,  saying  that  in  that  case  Gordon 
would  have  been  in  Khartoum  by  the  new  year,  and 
have  easily  then  have  brought  the  whole  garrison 
away.  But  who  knows  ?  Charles  Gordon  might  have 
refused  then,  as  later,  to  bring  any  one  away  until 
he  had  carried  out  his  impossible  scheme  of  political 
reorganization. 

Germany's  ruler,  Bismarck,  greatly  enjoyed  the  con- 
templation of  our  trouble,  and  started  one  of  his  periodic 
attempts  to  excite  German  feeling  against  England, 


ANGER    AND  MORTIFICATION      271 

employing  Busch,  whose  greatest  joy  was  in  licking  the 
Chancellor-Emperor's  boots,  to  write  articles  for  the 
German  papers — notably  the  Grenzboten — showing 
England  to  be  guilty  of  great  crimes.  One  article 
dealt  with  Protection,  another  with  England  and  China, 
declaring  that  by  restrictive  legislation  England  had 
caused  famine  and  cholera  in  India  and  was  respon- 
sible for  cholera  in  West  Africa  and  Europe.  Eng- 
land and  the  Boers,  England  and  Russia  were  the 
themes  of  other  of  these  articles.  Busch  tells  how  he 
and  Bucher — one  of  like  kidney — rejoiced  together 
over  England's  misfortunes  in  the  Sudan,  and  the  latter 
expressed  the  hope  that  Wolseley's  head  would  soon 
arrive  in  Cairo  nicely  pickled  and  packed !  He  also 
explains  how  the  Sultan's  refusal  to  see  after  his  own 
possessions  was  influenced  by  threats  from  Germany. 

The  crisis  in  the  Sudan  was  not  concluded  by  the 
tragedy  of  Khartoum;  that  had  to  be  followed  by  a 
decision  either  to  destroy  the  Mahdi  or  to  evacuate  the 
Sudan  altogether.  The  latter  alternative  was  decided 
upon,  and  in  April  Gladstone  wrote  to  the  Queen,  who 
was  then  abroad,  and  she  replied  with  a  vehement 
protest  against  the  decision,  saying  that  it  would  affect 
our  position  in  India,  and  demanding  that  Wolseley 
and  our  political  representative  in  Egypt,  Evelyn 
Baring  (since  Lord  Cromer)  should  have  an  absolutely 
free  hand  to  do  what  they  thought.  To  her  first 
objection  it  could  only  be  pointed  out  that  India 
alone  demanded  the  policy  decided  upon,  for  Russia, 
believing  Britain  fully  occupied  in  the  Sudan,  was 
again  attacking  Afghanistan;  and  the  second  was 


272    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

answered  by  Baring   sending  a  spontaneous  recom- 
mendation that  the  Sudan  be  abandoned. 

When  Britain's  need  was  defence,  the  Government 
was  quick  enough  to  act,  and  in  the  Afghan  quarrel 
steps  were  at  once  taken  which  considerably  helped  the 
settlement  of  the  matter  by  negotiation. 


CHAPTER     XVII 

"JOHN  BROWN'S  BODY" 

"That  terrible  struggle  for  life  in  the  lonely  plantation  near 
the  Fisheries." — Daily  Paper. 

"The  Prince,  become  King,  had  the  statue  removed  before 
he  even  saw  his  castle ;  the  '  mansion  '  he  bought  from  the 
servant's  heirs,  and  dedicated  it  to  his  own  use.  So  did  all 
trace  of  the  favourite  disappear  from  Balmoral." — Contem- 
porary Note. 

I  HAVE  no  intention  of  dealing  with  Irish  affairs — 
they  were  too  engrossing,  too  complicated  and  too 
immense;  but  in  1880  began  a  cycle  of  distress,  rebel- 
lion, agrarian  crime  and  coercion.  Fenianism  was 
again  rampant,  and  great  anxiety  was  felt  over  the 
royal  journey  from  Scotland  to  Windsor  in  the  autumn 
of  1880.  For  three  or  four  years  the  world  seemed 
to  suffer  from  madness — as  it  does  suffer  occasionally 
— and  Ireland  was  mad,  only  with  more  cause  than 
the  rest  of  the  globe.  The  assassinations,  the  incipient 
revolts  which  underlay  them,  and  the  insecurity  which 
the  Queen  felt  under  the  rule  of  Gladstone  (believing 
as  she  did  that  under  him  revolution  was  encouraged), 
all  combined  to  produce  a  condition  of  nervousness 
on  Victoria's  mind  which  each  new  blow  increased. 

In  March  1881  the  Tsar  of  Russia  was  killed  by  a 

bomb,  the  lower  part  of  his  body  being  blown  away; 
T  273 


274    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

in  the  summer  President  Garfield  was  shot,  and  in 
March  1882,  as  Victoria  was  walking  from  the  train 
at  Windsor  to  her  carriage,  a  crazy  youth,  named 
Robert  McLean,  fired  a  Colt's  revolver  at  her  from 
a  distance  of  a  few  yards,  an  Eton  boy  saving  her  by 
beating  up  McLean's  arm  with  an  umbrella.  Other 
Etonians  who  were  near  tried  to  lynch  him.  For- 
tunately no  one  was  hit,  though,  for  the  first  time  in 
the  history  of  the  many  bogus  attempts  at  assassina- 
tion of  our  Queen,  there  was  proof  that  the  revolver 
was  loaded. 

Victoria,  with  her  usual  courage  under  such  events, 
drove  on  to  the  castle,  and  wired  reassuringly  to 
Marlborough  House.  McLean,  a  clerk  out  of  em- 
ployment, was  tried  at  Reading,  and,  being  found  to 
be  insane,  was  detained  for  life. 

In  May  of  the  same  year  news  of  a  dreadful  Irish 
tragedy  came  at  the  end  of  a  day  on  which  the  seal 
had  been  set  on  the  accomplishment  of  a  good  deed. 
There  had  been  revelations  of  abuses  in  the  city,  and 
the  Government  had  talked  of  reforming  the  City 
Corporation;  so,  as  a  sop  to  Cerberus,  Epping  Forest 
was  set  in  order  and  presented  to  the  public  by  the 
City  fathers,  and  on  May  6  her  Majesty  went  in  semi- 
state  to  declare  it  duly  open. 

A  noted  journalist  gives  the  following  account  of 
the  occasion  and  of  the  news  which  followed  hard 
upon  it — 

"  It  was  a  day  of  bright  sunshine  as  Queen  Victoria 
drove  from  Chingford  to  High  Beach  to  declare 
Epping  Forest  open  for  the  use  of  the  people  for 


'JOHN    BROWN'S    BODY'  275 

all  time.  .  .  .  We  were  quietly  snatching  a  hasty 
lunch  in  a  marquee  beside  the  dais.  .  .  .  Suddenly, 
a  few  minutes  before  the  expected  time,  a  blare  of 
trumpets  announced  the  Queen's  approach.  Ministers 
and  Pressmen  alike  were  on  the  alert ;  Lord  Granville, 
one  of  the  most  homely  of  Secretaries  of  State,  not 
only  filled  his  mouth  with  part  of  a  sandwich  he  was 
eating,  but  carried  the  rest  on  to  the  platform.  The 
happy  chronicle  of  the  royal  rejoicings  in  Epping 
Forest,  which  closed  with  one  of  Messrs.  Brock's 
matchless  firework  displays,  had  scarcely  been  com- 
pleted when  there  came  '  Terrible  News  from  Ireland.' 
The  assassination  under  such  savage  circumstances  of 
Lord  Frederick  Cavendish  and  his  under-secretary, 
Mr.  Burke,  was  clearly  and  correctly  reported.  This 
fact  is  emphasized  on  account  of  its  having  been  so 
often  stated  that  the  London  public  heard  nothing  of 
the  diabolical  occurrence  until  Monday  morning.  Not 
only  was  the  news  given,  but  in  some  comments  I  said, 
'  The  crime  shatters  at  a  blow  Mr.  Gladstone's  hope 
of  pursuing  a  gentle  policy.' "  1 

Ireland  was,  indeed,  badly  served  by  her  revolu- 
tionaries, and  she  knew  it.  When  the  words  of  Lady 
Frederick  Cavendish — surely  one  of  the  noblest  of 
women — to  Mr.  Gladstone,  "  You  did  right  to  send 
him  to  Ireland,  Uncle  William,"  were  told  by  a  priest 
from  the  altar  of  a  chapel  in  Connemara  Road,  Dublin, 
the  whole  congregation  spontaneously  fell  down  on 
their  knees.  Parnell  offered  to  resign  his  seat  imme- 
diately, but  Gladstone  would  not  allow  it,  rightly 
1  My  Life's  Pilgrimage.  By  Thomas  Catling. 


276    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

regarding   the    Irish   leader   as   the    last   restraining 
influence  upon  the  Fenians. 

The  very  month  that  this  took  place  a  tatterdemalion 
named  Albert  Young  was  sentenced  to  imprisonment 
for  openly  threatening  the  death  of  Queen  Victoria 
and  Prince  Leopold.  The  Queen  was  a  very  brave 
woman,  but  this  succession  of  horrible  events  made 
her  soul  quail.  She  believed  in  the  strong  arm — no 
talking,  little  thinking;  if  you  are  hit,  no  matter  how 
or  why,  hit  back  as  hard  as  you  can.  Gladstone's 
appeal  to  justice  and  reason  were  to  her  but  signs  of 
weakness;  she  never  owned  herself  wrong,  and  that 
he  had  owned  England  wrong  in  Africa  and  Afghan- 
istan enraged  her;  that  he  had  tried  to  meet  Irish 
desperation  by  conceding  reforms,  by  treatment  rather 
than  by  force,  woke  her  scorn,  and  she  blamed  him 
for  the  deep  unrest  which  had  produced  these  Irish 
murders  by  members  of  a  secret  society  who  did  not 
even  know  whom  they  were  killing,  that  they  were 
English  gentlemen  being  sufficient  excuse. 

Under  Disraeli's  Government  her  Majesty  had  felt 
buoyant,  hopeful,  young  again;  now  a  black  atmo- 
sphere of  treachery  and  murder  surrounded  her.  She 
refused  each  year  through  this  Government  to  be 
present  at  the  opening  of  Parliament.  In  1883  she 
was  at  Windsor,  and  that  she  would  not  come  even 
that  short  distance  aroused  indignation  in  some 
quarters :  "  To  be  at  Windsor  and  yet  to  refuse  to 
run  up  to  town  is  as  good  as  saying,  '  My  faithful 
Lords  and  Commons,  you  can  get  on  very  well  without 
me,  and  I  don't  care  to  see  you.  Do  your  duty,  but 


1  JOHN    BROWN'S    BODY'  277 

don't  bother  me  while  I  am  looking  after  the  youngest 
of  the  many  grandchildren  whom  you  will  have  to 
provide  for  some  day/ '  Such  was  one  contemporary 
comment. 

One  of  the  causes  of  this  recrudescence  of  public 
irritation  was  that,  Gladstone  having  been  very  ill, 
the  Liberals,  jealous  for  the  honour  of  the  minister, 
noted  that  there  was  no  hint  of  "kind  inquiries"  by 
the  Queen,  and  they  recalled  the  anxious  assiduity 
with  which  Beaconsfield's  bedside  had  been  attended  : 
"  At  the  time  when  the  Court  was  required  to  go  into 
mourning  for  an  unknown  German,  it  was  a  question 
whether  Gladstone  would  be  well  enough  ever  to 
handle  again  the  ribbons  of  State." 

There  was,  however,  a  difference  of  degree  in  the 
illnesses  as  well  as  in  her  Majesty's  solicitude.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  she  was  duly  informed  of  her  Prime 
Minister's  state,  though  she  made  no  inquiries,  and, 
seeing  happy  possibility  before  her,  she  seized  upon 
it  by  causing  Ponsonby  to  write  and  urge  Gladstone 
to  retire  from  the  greater  part  of  his  active  work  and 
become  a  peer.  But  there  were  some  reforms  that  the 
Prime  Minister  still  wished  to  make,  and  he  politely 
refused  the  distinguished  offer  of  superannuation,  a 
refusal  which  damped  Victoria's  sympathies. 

Victorian  Court  mourning  was  a  wonderful  and 
intricate  invention,  for  it  had  been  elevated — I  cannot 
say  to  a  fine  art,  for  there  was  nothing  artistic  about 
it;  but  if  I  say  an  exact  science — though  there  are 
those  who  will  scoff — it  best  describes  it.  The  death 
of  a  cousin  of  the  last  recognizable  degree  was  sup- 


278     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

posed  to  cause  the  members  of  the  Court  anguish, 
modified  according  to  the  closeness  of  the  relationship, 
which  also  decided  the  amount  of  black  that  was  to 
be  worn.  Thus  when  in  January  of  1883  a  brother  of 
the  Emperor  William  died,  a  gentleman  whose  mind 
was  not  very  strong  I  believe,  the  Court  mourning 
orders  were :  women  to  wear  for  one  week  black 
dresses,  white  gloves,  black  or  white  shoes,  feathers 
and  fans,  pearls,  diamonds  or  plain  gold  and  silver 
ornaments.  Men  to  wear  black  Court  dress  with  black 
swords.  For  the  second  week  the  women  were  allowed 
coloured  ribbons,  flowers  and  ornaments;  and  then  all 
were  to  go  out  of  mourning. 

Death  was  at  this  time  horribly  busy  in  the  Queen's 
circle  of  friends.  To  her  grief,  Dean  Stanley  was 
one  of  those  taken;  as  Lord  Ronald  Gower  com- 
mented :  "  He  is  a  greater  loss  to  the  Queen  than  to 
the  Church";  Archbishop  Tait,  who  by  his  good 
sense,  solid  qualities  and  intellectual  simplicity  had 
won  her  friendship;  and  Dr.  Wellesley,  the  Dean  of 
Windsor,  also  slipped  out  of  life.  In  February  1881 
Thomas  Carlyle  died,  and  Queen  Victoria  sent  to 
inquire  about  him,  not  knowing  that  he  had  already 
passed  away.  "As  we  sat  in  the  parlour  the  street- 
door  bell  rang,  and  'a  messenger  from  the  Queen' 
was  said  to  be  in  the  passage;  I  went  out  at  Mary's 
request,  and  found  a  Scotchman  of  middle  age,  who 
said  he  was  '  sent  by  the  Queen  to  inquire  after 
Mr.  Carlyle.'  I  told  him  of  the  death,  asked  him 
no  questions.  He  may  have  been  John  Brown."  l 
1  William  Allingham:  a  Diary. 


1  JOHN    BROWN'S    BODY'  279 

In  February  1883  a  sergeant,  William  Maye,  of 
the  ist  Battalion  Coldstreams,  went  to  relieve  the 
guard  at  Windsor  Castle,  and  died  suddenly  at  his 
post.  This  tragic  event  made  a  deep  impression  on 
Victoria,  who  insisted  on  attending  the  funeral,  a 
military  one,  and  followed  the  cortege  to  the  cemetery. 
She  drove  with  Princess  Beatrice  in  an  open  carriage, 
General  Sir  Henry  Ponsonby  and  Colonel  Byng  being 
in  attendance  on  horseback.  Victoria  did  not  alight, 
but  watched  the  interment  from  her  carriage,  having 
sent  a  handsome  wreath  for  the  coffin,  and  returning 
to  the  castle  after  the  firing  of  three  volleys  over  the 
grave.  She  probably  had  a  definite  reason  for  this, 
in  addition  to  the  sympathy  which  she  always  felt  over 
bereavement  by  death.  In  October  1875  the  old 
farmer,  John  Brown,  father  of  her  servant,  had  died  in 
his  eighty-seventh  year.  He  had  been  known  to  her, 
as  had  other  tenants  and  cottagers  on  the  Balmoral 
estate,  probably  for  thirty  years;  but  it  was  her  affec- 
tion for  her  servant  which  induced  her  to  go  to  the 
funeral,  and  to  command  the  greater  part  of  her  house- 
hold to  be  present.  Princess  Beatrice,  the  Marchioness 
of  Ely,  the  Hon.  M.  West,  three  doctors  and  others, 
the  upper  and  outdoor  servants,  all  went  up  to  the 
home  of  the  widow,  a  poor  blind  old  woman  sitting 
in  her  kitchen  and  mourning  the  loss  of  her  lifelong 
companion.  On  the  other  side  of  the  house  door,  in 
a  tiny  room,  lay  the  coffin.  As  the  road  was  impass- 
able for  the  hearse  the  coffin  had  to  be  carried  by  the 
Brown  brothers  from  the  house  to  where  the  convey- 
ance stood.  Though  it  was  raining  hopelessly,  the 


280    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Queen  and  Princess  Beatrice  followed  to  the  hearse, 
and  then,  standing  on  a  hillside,  watched  the  proces- 
sion and  the  crowd — which  had  come  as  much  to  see 
the  Queen  as  to  do  respect  to  the  dead  man — wind 
along  the  road.  '  The  sons  were  there,  whom  I  dis- 
tinguished easily  from  their  being  near  good  Brown, 
who  wore  his  kilts,  walking  near  the  hearse.  All 
walked  except  our  gentlemen,  who  drove.  It  for- 
tunately ceased  raining  just  then.  I  went  back  to 
the  house  and  tried  to  soothe  dear  old  Mrs.  Brown, 
and  gave  her  a  mourning  brooch  with  a  little  bit  of 
her  husband's  hair  which  had  been  cut  off  yesterday. 
.  .  .  We  took  some  whisky-and-water  and  cheese, 
according  to  the  universal  Highland  custom,  and  then 
left.  .  .  .  We  drove  quickly  on,  and  I  saw  them  go 
into  the  kirkyard,  and  through  my  glasses  I  could  see 
them  carry  the  coffin  in.  I  was  grieved  I  could  not 
be  in  the  kirkyard."  * 

This  incident,  duly  reported  in  the  English  news- 
papers, caused  both  comment  and  criticism.  It  was 
said  that  her  Majesty  could  not  do  honour  enough  to 
her  Highland  servants  and  their  relations,  and  that 
she  had  never  been  known  to  pay  one  tithe  of  such 
attention  to  any  poor  Windsor  dependants.  So  when 
a  soldier  fell  dead  at  her  palace  door  she  demonstrated 
her  martial  position,  and  showed  her  English  subjects 
that  it  was  possible  for  her  to  grieve  even  over  a 
humble  Englishman. 

There  is  a  curious  little  contrasting  touch  in  the 
following,  taken  from  Sir  Algernon  West's  Reminis- 
1  More  Leaves  from  the  Journal.  By  Queen  Victoria. 


'JOHN    BROWN'S    BODY'  281 

cences.  His  friend  Alfred  Montgomery,  who  died  in 
1 88 1,  was  one  whose  "sense  of  humour  and  wit  lasted 
till  the  end;  one  day  during  his  illness  the  Prince  of 
Wales  called  on  him,  and  shortly  afterwards  the 
Princess.  On  her  departure,  he  said  to  the  servant, 
'  Should  the  Queen  call,  say  that  I  am  too  tired  to 
see  her  Majesty.'  Curiously  enough,  he  once  told 
me  that  though  he  had  been  in  the  Queen's  household 
since  her  Majesty's  accession,  she  had  never  once 
spoken  to  him." 

Other  honours  had  been  done  John  Brown.  Balna- 
choil,  a  fine  house,  popularly  described  as  a  mansion, 
had  been  built  for  his  occupation  at  Balmoral,  and 
given  to  him  and  his  heirs  for  ever;  some  of  the  finest 
fishing  and  shooting  on  the  Balmoral  estate  were 
strictly  reserved  for  him;  circumstances  were  made 
so  easy  for  him  that  he  was  amassing  a  fortune,  and 
it  was  rumoured  that  royal  visitors  to  the  castle  were 
always  enjoined — or  did  it  of  their  own  free  wills — 
to  leave  a  trifle  for  the  favourite  servant.  The  sum 
of  £20,000  was  named  as  his  savings  after  his  death, 
but  that  was  perhaps  an  exaggeration.  He  had  also 
been  honoured,  as  a  result  of  his  mistress's  praise  of 
him  to  others,  with  a  decoration  from  the  King  of 
Greece,  while  another  distinguished  person  at  Mentone 
had  given  him  a  gold  medal. 

On  the  few  occasions  on  which  the  Queen  appeared 
in  public  John  Brown  was  even  more  eagerly  looked 
for  than  her  Majesty,  and  at  the  opening  of  the  new 
Law  Courts  in  December  1882  some  one  remarked, 
"  Everything  considered,  he  looks  well.  He  shows  no 


282     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

sign  as  yet  of  suffering  from  his  duty."  We  hear  of 
him  from  Madame  Waddington  (My  First  Years  as 
a  Frenchwoman)  in  Paris  with  his  mistress,  and  wait- 
ing at  the  door  of  the  room  in  the  British  Embassy 
until  the  Queen  came  out  that  he  might  shake 
hands  with  Mr.  Waddington  and  invite  him  to  come 
to  Scotland,  "where  he  would  receive  a  hearty 
welcome." 

He  had  become  more  assertive,  more  lofty;  there 
was  no  appeal  against  his  word;  and  such  a  person 
has  more  enemies  than  friends.  One  man  only  he 
dared  not  interfere  with,  and  that  was  Lohlein,  the 
German  valet  who  had  come  to  England  with  Prince 
Albert.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  offer  advice  or  com- 
ment to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  his  mistress,  and 
there  are  various  allusions  in  the  Queen's  journals 
which  show  that  Brown's  opinion  on  everything  was 
of  import.  Thus  at  the  unveiling  of  the  statue  to 
Prince  Albert  at  Edinburgh  in  1876,  at  the  end  of 
the  description  we  are  told  that  Brown  "  was  delighted 
with  the  reception."  When  the  Duke  of  Connaught 
returned  to  Balmoral  after  the  Egyptian  war,  and  the 
Albanys  came  home  from  their  honeymoon,  in  face  of 
royalties  and  aristocrats  Brown  stepped  forward  and 
asked  them  all  to  join  in  a  Highland  cheer  for  the 
bride  and  bridegroom.  On  the  anniversary  of  the 
Prince  Consort's  birthday  in  1876  the  Queen  notes: 
"  I  gave  my  faithful  Brown  an  oxydized  silver  biscuit 
box  and  some  onyx  studs.  He  was  greatly  pleased 
with  the  former  and  the  tears  came  into  his  eyes,  and 
he  said,  '  It  is  too  much.'  ...  I  gave  my  maids  some 


4 JOHN    BROWN'S    BODY'  283 

trifles  from  Dunbar;  and  to  Janie  Ely,  the  gentlemen 
and  the  servants  a  trifle  each." 

When  Brown  died  in  1883,  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven, 
it  must  be  realized  that  Victoria  was  already  badly 
shaken  by  the  many  assassinations,  her  disappoint- 
ments in  foreign  policy,  her  rooted  distrust  of  a  Liberal 
Government,  and  a  succession  of  threatening  letters 
sent  to  herself.  It  was  probably  in  conjunction  with 
these  that  Sir  John  Cowell,  Master  of  the  Household, 
issued  some  curious  instructions  to  servants  at  Windsor 
in  February  1883.  Those  who  were  on  duty  at  the 
castle  were  forbidden  to  leave  the  palace,  and  those 
who  went  home  to  sleep  were  forbidden  to  visit  music- 
halls,  theatres  or  any  place  of  public  amusement;  in 
addition,  if  any  in  their  homes  were  suffering  from 
illness,  they  were  to  report  it  and  stay  away  from  the 
castle  altogether.  This  reminds  one  of  the  present 
Kaiser,  who  throughout  his  reign  has  occasionally 
issued  such  notices,  and  who,  on  hearing  of  any  one 
suffering  from  a  cold  or  sore  throat  even  remotely 
connected  with  his  household,  would  at  once  flee  and 
seek  shelter  in  another  of  his  numerous  castles  or 
palaces. 

On  March  15,  1883,  a  Fenian  attempt  to  blow  up 
the  Home  Office  failed;  at  Liverpool  the  police  were 
busy  with  an  organized  band  of  dynamitards,  and  all 
public  buildings  were  being  watched  by  pickets  and 
guards.  When  the  Queen  travelled  at  this  time  the 
whole  length  of  the  line  was  guarded  by  men  stationed 
at  distances  which  allowed  of  their  being  in  sight  of 
each  other,  and  carrying  flags  and  noisy  fog-signals. 


Two  days  after  the  attempt  on  the  Home  Office, 
Victoria,  then  at  Windsor  Castle,  slipped  on  the  stairs 
of  the  palace  and  caught  her  knee  with  such  violence 
on  the  marble  edge  that  it  gave  her  much  pain;  and 
at  this  very  moment  happened  the  event  which  led 
to  Brown's  death.  A  certain  young  woman,  Lady 
Florence  Dixie,  well  known  at  the  time  in  society- 
one  who,  like  Dryden's  Duke  of  Buckingham,  had 
tried  her  hands  at  many  things,  and  who  lived  at 
The  Fisheries,  a  riverside  house  close  to  Windsor- 
had  been  writing  letters  to  The  Times  about  the  Irish 
Land  League.  On  Saturday  the  i/th,  at  about  half- 
past  four  she  walked  near  her  house,  and  a  little  later 
returned  to  it  in  a  state  of  agitation,  disarray  and  mud, 
and  with  a  cut  hand.  Her  story  was  that  two  very 
tall  women  had  attacked  her,  one  throwing  her  down, 
the  other  stabbing  at  her  with  a  knife,  the  blow  being 
deflected  by  the  whalebone  of  her  stays.  At  the  second 
stab  Lady  Florence  seized  the  knife  with  both  hands 
and  shouted,  upon  which  a  handful  of  mud  was  pushed 
into  her  mouth,  nearly  choking  her.  The  arrival  of 
her  St.  Bernard  dog  coincided  with  her  own  loss  of 
consciousness,  and  when  she  recovered  the  two  people, 
whom  she  was  convinced  were  men  in  disguise,  had 
disappeared. 

This  event  naturally  caused  a  great  sensation,  and 
the  Queen  received  the  news  as  quickly  as  it  could  fly. 
The  Prince  of  Wales  and  every  one  round  sent  con- 
dolences and  inquiries  to  The  Fisheries,  but  no  one 
was  so  affected  as  Victoria,  for  here  was  another 
attempted  assassination  at  her  very  gate  and  in  broad 


'JOHN    BROWN'S    BODY'  285 

daylight.  On  the  Sunday  her  Majesty  refused  to  take 
her  usual  drive,  and  sent  first  the  Marchioness  of  Ely, 
then  Lord  Methuen  and  Sir  Henry  Ponsonby,  to  The 
Fisheries.  Not  content  with  that,  she  asked  Brown 
to  examine  the  ground  where  the  attack  had  been 
made.  He  drove  there  in  an  open  cart,  a  present  to 
him  from  the  Queen,  and  closely  examined  everything, 
including  the  dog,  feeling  so  puzzled  with  the  whole 
case  that  he  spent  much  time  over  it  exposed  to  a 
bitter  wind. 

It  may  be  mentioned  that  other  people  beside  John 
Brown  were  very  much  puzzled,  as  the  place  at  which 
the  affair  occurred  was  open  to  view  from  a  well- 
frequented  road,  and  the  two  women,  or  men,  might 
have  been  wraiths  from  the  way  in  which  they  entirely 
vanished.  The  only  evidence  of  their  presence  was 
said  to  be  the  marks  of  hobnailed  boots  in  the  mud. 
Conviction  generally  spread,  whether  justly  or  un- 
justly, that  love  of  notoriety  was  alone  responsible 
for  a  theatrical  episode. 

The  results  were,  however,  serious  for  John  Brown 
and  the  Queen.  He  took  a  bad  cold,  and  for  a  week, 
while  going  about  his  duties,  seemed  unwell.  On 
Monday  the  26th  he  was  too  ill  to  get  up,  and 
erysipelas  developed.  Dr.  Reid  attended  him,  and 
Sir  William  Jenner  was  sent  for  on  Tuesday  morning. 
He  died  at  11.30  that  night,  killed,  as  some  one 
said,  by  kindness,  for  a  Highlander  to  die  of  a 
cold  caught  in  a  wind  implied  a  too  luxurious  state 
of  living. 

The  grief  of  the  Queen  was  intense  and  noisy;  her 


286    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

exasperated  nerves  entirely  gave  way;  she  blamed 
Ireland,  criminal  Ireland,  which  had  stolen  from  her 
her  servant  and  friend;  she  blamed  Gladstone,  who 
had  hoped  by  legislation  alone  to  tame  the  wild  land. 
Her  mind  became  obsessed  with  Brown,  and  she  drew 
up  a  notice  to  be  inserted  in  the  Court  Circular  of 
March  29,  which  ran  to  the  length  of  twenty-five  lines; 
an  unprecedented  feature  in  the  whole  history  of  that 
public  record  of  trivialities — 

"  We  have  to  record  the  death  of  Mr.  John  Brown, 
the  Queers  personal  attendant.  This  melancholy 
event  has  caused  the  deepest  regret  to  the  Queen, 
the  Royal  Family  and  all  the  members  of  the  Royal 
Household.  To  her  Majesty  the  loss  is  irreparable, 
and  the  death  of  this  truly  faithful  and  devoted  servant 
has  been  a  grievous  shock  to  the  Queen.  .  .  .  During 
the  last  eighteen  and  a  half  years  he  served  her 
Majesty  constantly,  and  never  once  absented  himself 
from  his  duty  for  a  single  day.  He  has  accompanied 
the  Queen  in  her  daily  walks  and  drives,  and  all  her 
journeys  and  expeditions,  as  well  as  personally  wait- 
ing on  her  at  banquets,  etc.  An  honest,  faithful  and 
devoted  follower,  a  trustworthy,  discreet  and  straight- 
forward man,  and  possessed  of  strong  sense,  he  filled 
a  position  of  great  and  anxious  responsibility,  the 
duties  of  which  he  performed  with  such  constant  and 
unceasing  care  as  to  secure  for  himself  the  real  friend- 
ship of  the  Queen." 

In  this  the  Queen  practically  asked  for  her  people's 
sympathy,  and  they  gave  it  warmly,  recognizing  the 
true  facts  of  the  case;  but  most  Englishmen  felt  that 


'JOHN    BROWN'S    BODY'  287 

the  death  of  this  too  prominent  servant  removed  one 
who  had  long  been  damaging  to  royal  prestige. 

Brown's  body  was  sent  to  be  buried  at  Craithie 
churchyard,  near  the  river  Dee,  where,  at  Victoria's 
order,  a  mausoleum  of  brick  and  encaustic  tiles  was 
built  alongside  the  grave  of  his  father ;  and  the  funeral 
was  attended  by  all  the  servants  at  Balmoral.  The 
Queen  sent  an  extraordinary  wreath  for  the  coffin,  one 
more  suitable  to  a  wedding,  for  it  was  composed  of 
myrtle  and  white  flowers.  To  it  was  attached  the 
words  :  "A  gracious  expression  of  her  Majesty's  per- 
sonal sense  of  the  loss  she  has  sustained,  and  of  her 
affection  for  her  faithful  servant."  (When  will  royalty 
allow  a  sense  of  humour  to  correct  the  bad  taste  of 
royal  custom?  When  her  Majesty  graciously  does 
something,  the  word  is  suitable  from  the  pen  of  the 
reporter  or  the  secretary,  but  there  is  a  snobbish  tinge 
about  it  when  she  deliberately  uses  it  herself  that 
makes  it  offensive.)  At  the  hour  at  which  John  Brown 
was  buried  a  service  was  held  in  his  apartments  at 
Windsor  Castle,  being  attended  by  the  Queen  and 
Princess  Beatrice. 

After  this  the  public  announcements  of  the  Queen's 
ill-health  were  accompanied  by  vague  and  sinister 
rumours.  Sir  William  Jenner  was  in  constant  attend- 
ance. It  was  stated  that  her  fall  and  the  shock 
of  John  Brown's  death  had  made  her  condition  the 
cause  of  much  solicitude;  that  rest,  both  mental  and 
physical,  was  imperatively  needed,  for  she  could  not 
stand  long  without  anguish,  and  soon  wearied  of  any 
intellectual  effort ;  while  the  inflammation  of  the  blood 


288    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

was  one  of  the  worst  signs.  But  the  rumours  went 
further,  and  there  were  whispers  of  some  coming 
momentous  change  if  the  doctors  could  not  overcome 
the  weakness  of  the  Queen  :  "  We  should  be  glad 
that  there  is  no  immediate  prospect  of  a  change  on 
the  throne."  She  had  entirely  given  up  driving,  and 
never  appeared  outside  the  castle  gates,  and  gossip 
had  it  that  she  feared  assassination ;  the  truth  probably 
being  that  she  was  too  ill  to  go  out. 

A  curious  order,  made  in  the  middle  of  April,  that 
"  in  consequence  of  the  mortality  of  sheep  and  lambs 
the  Queen  has  commanded  that  no  lamb  shall  be 
served  in  the  Royal  Household  this  season "  raised 
something  like  consternation,  showing  as  it  did  a  lack 
of  knowledge  of  the  sheep-rearing  industry.  A  fort- 
night later,  upon  the  representations  made  to  her,  the 
Queen  said,  in  effect,  revenom  a  nos  moutons — for  the 
order  was  rescinded. 

Victoria  was  to  have  gone  on  a  visit  to  Sandringham, 
but  it  was  put  off,  then  arranged  and  again  put  off, 
and  at  last  she  went  to  Osborne  on  April  17.  The 
journey  was  made  in  rigid  privacy;  from  the  castle 
she  drove  in  a  closed  carriage,  with  equerries  riding 
by  the  windows;  the  public  and  even  the  station 
officials  were  dispensed  with  at  the  stations,  and  all 
along  the  line  no  heads  of  railway  departments  were 
allowed  to  be  on  the  platforms.  In  May  the  return 
was  made  in  the  same  way,  and  on  the  25th  of  that 
month  she  went  to  Balmoral  under  the  same  signs  of 
secrecy,  a  great  screen  of  evergreens  being  put  up  at 
Perth  to  hide  her  when  passing  to  her  breakfast-room. 


4 JOHN    BROWN'S    BODY'  289 

There  followed  many  strange  stories  as  to  her  mental 
condition,  especially  as  the  doctors  were  reported  to 
be  very  anxious  about  her;  suggestions  were  made 
that  the  injured  knee  was  but  an  innocent  fiction 
intended  to  disguise  the  true  state  of  affairs,  and 
further  whispers  among  those  who  were  around  her 
Majesty  at  the  time  were  spread  abroad  to  the  effect 
that  possibly  a  Regency  would  be  arranged. 

Later  on  the  Queen  indignantly  protested  that  no 
woman  who  had  to  be  lifted  to  and  from  her  carriage 
in  a  chair  would  wish  a  crowd  to  stand  watching  the 
process,  and  that  this  was  the  cause  of  her  journeys 
being  so  privately  conducted. 

It  was  hoped  that  the  change  of  air  and  scene  at 
Balmoral  would  have  a  good  effect  upon  the  Queen's 
health,  but,  to  the  disappointment  of  every  one,  it  but 
deepened  the  depression.  This  was  somewhat  natural, 
as  the  whole  place  was  reminiscent  of  John  Brown, 
and  all  her  thought  was  for  his  memory.  Arriving  at 
Balmoral  in  the  morning,  she  ordered  everything  to 
be  in  readiness  to  take  her  to  Craithie  churchyard, 
and  after  a  short  luncheon  drove  with  Princess  Beatrice 
and  Dr.  Profeit  to  the  spot.  A  few  days  later  she 
was  there  again,  carrying  with  her  a  wreath  to  lay 
upon  the  grave.  The  servants  at  Balmoral  were 
ordered  to  wear  mourning  bands  round  their  arms  for 
him,  and  the  royal  servants  contributed  unquestion- 
ingly  to  a  memorial  subscription  fund.  The  royal 
birthday  passed  without  rejoicings,  and  there  were  no 
servants'  or  tenants'  parties. 

The  memoirs  which  John  Brown  left  were  never 
u 


290    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

published,  all  his  papers  being,  by  the  Queen's  com- 
mand, taken  possession  of  by  Sir  Henry  Ponsonby. 
Boehm,  the  sculptor,  was  ordered  to  make  a  life-sized 
statue  of  the  dead  man,  which  in  the  following  year 
was  mounted  on  a  pedestal  and  placed  close  to  the 
castle  at  Balmoral ;  and  at  Osborne  was  placed 
another  monument  to  his  memory  in  the  shape  of  a 
granite  seat,  upon  which  the  Queen  had  some  pathetic 
lines  engraved. 

When  at  Osborne  in  August  Victoria  summoned 
Tennyson  for  one  of  those  interviews  which  gave  so 
much  pleasure  to  both,  and  asked  him  to  write  an 
epitaph  to  put  on  the  tomb  at  Craithie.  The  poet, 
however,  sent  her  a  quotation,  and  Victoria  had  a 
stone  put  over  John  Brown's  grave  which  rivalled  that 
to  Beaconsfield,  the  inscription  running — 

THIS   STONE 
IS  ERECTED  IN  AFFECTIONATE  REMEMBRANCE  OF 

JOHN    BROWN 

THE  DEVOTED  AND  FAITHFUL  PERSONAL  ATTENDANT  AND  BELOVED 

FRIEND  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA.     '  THAT  FRIEND  ON  WHOSE 

FIDELITY  YOU  COUNT,  THAT  FRIEND  GIVEN  YOU  BY 

CIRCUMSTANCES  OVER  WHICH  YOU  HAVE  NO 

CONTROL,  WAS  GOD'S  OWN  GIFT.' 

Of  her  last  interview  with  the  Laureate,  which  took 
place  a  little  later  in  the  year,  the  Queen  wrote : 
"When  I  took  leave  of  him,  I  thanked  him  for  his 
kindness  and  said  I  needed  it,  for  I  had  gone  through 
much ;  and  he  said,  '  You're  so  alone  on  that  terrible 
height;  it  is  terrible.  I've  only  a  year  or  two  to  live, 


4 JOHN    BROWN'S    BODY'  291 

but  I  shall  be  happy  to  do  anything  for  you  I  can — send 
for  me  whenever  you  like.'    I  thanked  him  warmly." 

Victoria  had  intended  to  go  to  the  Continent  in 
June,  and  her  yacht,  the  Osborne,  was  docked  at  Ports- 
mouth, thirty  workmen  busy  at  getting  it  ready;  but 
at  the  last  the  journey  was  postponed,  the  royal  party 
only  returning  from  Balmoral  on  the  23rd  of  the 
month,  when  the  Queen  had  to  be  carried  to  the  train 
in  an  invalid  chair,  and  for  almost  the  first  time  in 
her  life  being  half  an  hour  late  in  starting.  In  July 
she  went  to  Osborne,  and  in  August  returned  to 
Balmoral ;  and  now  we  get  one  of  the  first  indications 
that  she  was  beginning  to  feel  that  her  presence  was 
to  some  extent  necessary  to  her  ministers,  for  that 
journey  was  postponed  some  days,  as  Parliament  had 
not  been  prorogued.  However,  once  in  Scotland  she 
remained  there  three  months,  coming  back  at  the  end 
of  November  through  heavy  snow,  and  under  threats 
that  explosives  would  be  placed  on  the  lines.  An 
extra  pilot-engine  preceded  the  train,  and  extra  guards 
were  stationed,  one  in  sight  of  the  other,  for  the  whole 
six  hundred  miles ;  and  nothing  happened. 

This  autumn  the  Queen  amused  herself  by  pre- 
paring her  second  series  of  journals,  More  Leaves 
from  the  Journal  of  a  Life  in  the  Highlands;  and 
when  it  was  issued,  in  1884,  it  bore  the  dedication — 

"  To  my  loyal  Highlanders  and  especially  to  the 
memory  of  my  devoted  personal  attendant  and  faithful 
friend,  John  Brown,  these  records  of  my  widowed  life 
in  Scotland  are  gratefully  dedicated. 

"Victoria,  R.  I." 


292     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

The  volume  concluded  with  a  short  appreciation 
of  John  Brown,  one  paragraph  in  which  ran  :  "  His 
loss  to  me  (ill  and  helpless  as  I  was  at  the  time  from 
an  accident)  is  irreparable,  for  he  deservedly  pos- 
sessed my  entire  confidence;  and  to  say  that  he  is 
daily,  nay  hourly,  missed  by  me,  whose  lifelong 
gratitude  he  won  by  his  constant  care,  attention  and 
devotion,  is  but  a  feeble  expression  of  the  truth." 

This  whole  John  Brown  incident  is  typical  of 
Victoria's  character.  From  the  very  first  she  had  been 
unable  to  stand  alone;  she  needed  a  stronger  per- 
sonality to  support  her.  Melbourne,  Prince  Albert, 
John  Brown,  these  had,  each  in  his  turn,  afforded  that 
support :  Melbourne  entirely  during  her  youthful 
exercise  of  power;  her  husband  had  wielded  the  power 
for  her  and  left  her  happy  with  the  appearance  of  it ; 
John  Brown  slid  insensibly  into  the  position  of  con- 
fidential helper  and  stay,  and  she  discussed  every- 
thing with  him,  being  delighted  with  his  shrewd 
answers.  At  a  time  when  she  was  lonely,  overworked 
by  her  own  indiscriminating  will,  the  subject  of  her 
people's  bitter  disappointment  and  discontent,  bear- 
ing many  sorrows  caused  by  death,  this  man,  strong, 
devoted  and  capable,  stood  always  by  her  side.  The 
mere  personal  proximity  during  so  many  years,  com- 
bined with  some  natural  sympathy  between  their 
natures,  drew  him  slowly  into  his  position  of  close 
friend  as  well  as  of  attentive  servant.  Her  simplicity 
and  frankness,  as  well  as  her  invincible  faith  in  her 
high  position,  blinded  her  to  the  impropriety  of  her 
constant  public  recognition  of  him,  to  the  possibility 


'JOHN    BROWN'S    BODY'  293 

that  vulgar  gossip — born  of  anger — could  arise;  to 
the  natural  contrast  which  the  public  must  draw 
between  her  attitude  to  a  simple  Scotch  peasant  and 
her  own  eldest  son,  heir  to  her  throne. 

Every  one  knew  that  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  never 
consulted  on  matters  of  State  policy,  that  his  ambi- 
tions were  forcibly  bounded  by  the  laying  of  founda- 
tion-stones and  the  opening  of  charitable  institutions. 
It  was  also  known,  as  time  went  on,  that  when  he 
saw  younger  men  than  himself  holding  positions  of 
great  power  and  influence  he  openly  regretted  that 
he  had  been  delegated  at  the  beginning  of  his  career 
to  the  duties  of  a  social  figurehead,  and  it  was  said 
that  he  aspired  to  higher  things.  His  many  journeys 
abroad,  laughed  at  by  some,  were  regarded  by  others 
as  a  deliberate  self-training  in  the  knowledge  of 
people,  statesmen  and  feeling  in  different  countries, 
and  as  providing  the  means  of  studying  the  effects  of 
our  foreign  policy  both  at  home  and  abroad.  Quite 
unconsciously  to  himself  the  exaltation  of  John  Brown 
turned  the  people's  attention  to  the  Prince,  and  they 
centred  their  hopes  in  him. 

However,  the  Queen,  engrossed  in  her  feelings, 
knew  nothing  of  this,  and  to  the  day  of  her  death 
shut  out  of  her  counsels  the  man  who  should  have 
been  her  chief  support.  She  continued  to  hold  her- 
self aloof  from  great  and  small,  while  the  Prince  and 
Princess  of  Wales  broke  through  the  cold  and  rigid 
German  Court  etiquette  by  mingling  with  those  who 
were  virtually  their  subjects,  and  accepting  invitations 
in  London  and  the  country.  It  had  never  been  done 


294     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

before  with  anything  like  the  same  freedom,  and 
foreign  Court  pedants  as  well  as  her  Majesty  looked 
on  aghast.  But  it  brought  them  close  to  the  nation, 
and  though  Albert  Edward  spoke  English  with  a 
strong  German  accent,  he  was  regarded  as  more 
English  than  his  mother. 

The  long  series  of  deaths  which  had  so  distressed 
the  Queen  came  temporarily  to  an  end  in  1884  when 
Prince  Leopold  died  suddenly  at  Cannes.  He  had 
married  in  1882,  and  was  given  as  a  wedding  present 
Claremont  and  all  it  contained  by  her  Majesty,  who 
bought  it  outright  from  the  State.  He  inherited  his 
father's  tastes,  and  on  the  rare  occasions  on  which  he 
chaired  a  meeting  his  speeches  much  resembled  those 
of  Prince  Albert.  In  the  general  irritation  against 
royalty,  it  was  said  that  it  was  impossible  that  one  of 
the  Queen's  sons  could  make  a  decent  speech,  and 
that  they  were  written  for  him ;  but  there  was  no  reason 
to  believe  that  this  was  anything  more  than  idle  spite. 
He  alone  of  the  four  brothers  spoke  English  with  a 
pure  accent.  His  little  daughter  was  born  in  1883; 
his  son's  birth  did  not  take  place  until  after  his  death. 

Leopold  craved  for  some  active  position,  but  his 
health  and  his  mother's  solicitude  enforced  great 
restrictions  upon  him.  He  particularly  hoped  to  be 
made  Governor-General  of  Canada,  and  Gladstone 
would  have  been  quite  willing  to  give  him  the  post, 
but  the  Queen  forbade,  and  the  Prince  felt  much  hurt 
at  the  Prime  Minister's  refusal.  Early  in  March  1884 
he  went  to  Cannes  to  avoid  the  bitter  east  winds,  and 
there,  at  the  Cercle  Nautique,  he,  too,  slipped  on  the 


'JOHN    BROWN'S    BODY'  295 

stairs  and  again  hurt  his  knee.  He  was  taken  to  the 
Villa  Nevada,  where  he  was  residing,  and  seemed  little 
the  worse,  but  in  the  night  he  died  in  an  epileptic  fit. 
He  was  buried  at  Windsor,  and,  having  been  totally 
unable  to  lead  a  physically  active  life,  the  Queen 
ordered  a  full  military  funeral,  his  body  being  borne 
by  the  Seaforth  Highlanders,  for  in  this  regiment  she 
had  given  him  one  of  those  much-discussed  honorary 
colonelcies. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

THE    GERMAN    INVASION 

"He  is  a  dear,   good,  amiable,   high-principled  young  man, 

who,  I  am  sure,  will  make  our  dearest  very  happy,  and 

she  will,  I  am  sure,  be  a  most  devoted,  loving  wife  to  him. 
She  is  very,  very  happy,  and  it  is  a  pleasure  to  see  their  young, 
happy  faces  beaming  with  love  for  one  another." — Letters  of 
Queen  Victoria. 

"  I  am  far  more  proud  of  my  Stuart  than  of  my  Hanoverian 
ancestors." — Queen  Victoria. 

IF  Queen  Victoria  never  neglected  her  duty  at  a 
funeral,  and  pleased  her  sentiment  by  remembering  all 
death  anniversaries,  she  extended  that  thought  and 
sentiment  to  more  cheerful  things,  and  gave  her  pro- 
tection to  constant  lovers.  It  is  impossible  for  the 
ordinary  commoner  to  believe  that  royal  marriages  are 
not  solely  the  result  of  interested  considerations,  and 
however  much  it  may  be  protested  that  a  young 
princess  or  prince  has  made  a  love  match,  there  are 
few  to  give  the  statement  credence.  However,  the 
Queen  helped  forward  some  marriages  which  seem  to 
have  had  their  origin  in  sheer  romance. 

One  of  these  took  place  in  1880  when  Frederica, 
"  the  lily  of  Hanover,"  the  daughter  of  Victoria's  blind 
cousin  George,  whom  Bismarck  had  deposed  in  1866, 
owned  herself  in  love  with  one  of  her  father's  late 

equerries,  Baron  Pawell  von  Rammingen.     This  was 

296 


297 

certainly  not  a  marriage  of  high  degree  for  a  princess, 
a  great-granddaughter  of  George  III  of  England  and 
daughter  of  an  ancient  line  of  German  kings. 

George  of  Hanover,  Frederica's  brother,  was  then 
living  in  Vienna,  and  there  seemed  little  prospect 
before  Frederica  other  than  that  of  a  lone  lady  of 
somewhat  restricted  means,  when  love  pointed  out  the 
way.  Finding  herself  hopeless  against  the  world  at 
the  moment  of  her  grand  passion,  she  appealed  to 
her  earlier  protectress,  the  Queen  of  England.  The 
adventure  pleased  the  Queen,  who  did  not  go  all  the 
way  with  German  punctiliousness  where  true  love  was 
concerned.  She  arranged  that  the  wedding  should 
take  place  in  her  private  chapel  at  Windsor.  Remon- 
strance reached  her  from  the  Court  of  the  German 
Emperor,  and  the  whole  of  the  etiquette-ruled  nations 
looked  askance  upon  the  marriage,  affecting  to  dis- 
believe that  the  Queen  could  have  promised  her 
support.  Victoria  was,  however,  determined  that  they 
should  make  no  mistake  about  her  sanction,  and 
ordered  that  a  list  of  the  presents  should  appear  in 
the  Court  Circular,  and  two  days  later  had  the  dress 
and  veil  fully  described  and  acknowledged  as  her 
gifts. 

Thus  she  made  two  people  happy,  but  one  would 
imagine  that  the  Baron  was  even  happier  out  of  Ger- 
many than  in  it;  Lord  Carlingford,  writing  to  Edward 
Lear  from  Balmoral  in  1884,  said,  "  I  found  the  Queen 
remarkably  well,  better  in  body  and  mind  than  I  have 
seen  her  for  a  long  time,  though  anxious  about  public 
affairs.  The  lady-in-waiting  is  the  widowed  Duchess 


298     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

of  Roxburghe,  whom  I  like.  Princess  Frederica  of 
Hanover,  and  her  husband  Baron  Pawell  von  Ram- 
mingen  are  here.  He  is  a  pleasing  sort  of  man  in 
an  awkward  position — one  of  the  servants  informed 
a  maid-of-honour  that  '  Mrs.  Rummagen  was  come.' 
She  is  very  tall,  distinguished  and  charming." 

If  Victoria  shocked  Prussia  by  mothering  this 
romance,  a  little  later  she  found  opportunity  to  flout 
all  the  German  ideals  of  caste  which  have  ever 
existed,  and  she  carried  out  her  role  of  fairy  god- 
mother with  the  same  determined  and  complacent 
autocracy  which  she  showed  in  neglecting  some  of  her 
most  important  duties  at  home.  Three  more  marriages 
she  tried  to  arrange  with  morganatic  bridegrooms  on 
the  one  hand  and  one  ducal  and  two  royal  princesses 
on  the  other.  The  bridegrooms  were  the  Battenbergs. 

If  English  people  think  of  the  Battenbergs  at  all 
they  still  either  wonder  who  on  earth  they  were,  or 
content  themselves  with  saying  wearily,  "  Germans,  of 
course."  They  were  Germans  on  their  father's  side, 
that  father  being  Alexander  of  Hesse,  uncle  to  the 
Grand  Duke  Louis.  But  their  mother  was  a  Pole, 
whose  father,  said  to  have  been  of  humble  origin,  rose 
to  be  War  Minister  at  Hesse-Darmstadt.  Alexander 
was  brother  to  the  Empress  of  Alexander  II,  Czar  of 
Russia,  and  he  took  service  in  the  Russian  army  in 
1851.  Before  this  he  had  met  at  the  Court  there 
Mademoiselle  Haucke,  a  Polish  maid-of-honour,  and 
when  he  married  her  in  1851  the  title  of  Princess 
Battenberg  was  given  her  by  the  Czar.  Of  this 
morganatic  marriage  at  least  five  children  were  born, 


THE  GERMAN   INVASION  299 

four  boys  and  a  girl,  the  three  eldest  boys  being  Louis, 
Alexander  and  Henry,  two  of  them  becoming  German 
officers.  Being  first  cousins  of  the  husband  of  Princess 
Alice,  the  Queen  naturally  knew  them  well,  and  as  they 
were  handsome  young  men  without  a  penny  piece 
among  them,  they  appealed  strongly  to  her  sense  of 
protectiveness.  The  eldest  boy  she  invited  to  Eng- 
land, where  at  the  age  of  fourteen  he  arrived,  and 
being  naturalized  entered  the  British  Navy.  This  is 
he  who,  wisely  yielding  to  natural  British  distrust,  in 
the  autumn  of  1914  gave  up  his  position  as  First  Sea 
Lord  of  the  Admiralty. 

The  second  brother,  Alexander,  was  made  by  the 
Tsar,  in  agreement  with  the  other  Powers,  Prince 
of  Bulgaria,  but  not  being  sufficiently  subservient  to 
his  patron  he  fell  into  disgrace  and  had  to  give  up 
his  dignity,  after  which  he  wandered  back  to  more 
western  lands,  his  one  ambition  being  to  reoccupy  his 
old  position  as  a  Prussian  soldier. 

The  third  boy,  Henry,  educated  in  Thuringia, 
became  a  lieutenant  in  the  Saxon  Hussars,  and  in 
1882  a  member  of  the  Berlin  "  Garde  du  Corps." 

When  her  Majesty  went  abroad,  which  by  this  time 
was  almost  every  year,  she  would  generally  see  one 
or  more  of  the  Battenbergs.  In  1871,  when  she  was 
staying  at  the  Villa  Hohenlohe  at  Baden-Baden, 
among  the  guests  was  the  mother,  Princess  Battenberg. 
This  villa  belonged  to  Victoria's  half-sister,  Feodore; 
and  the  Queen  went  there  once  again — the  following 
year — as  a  guest,  for  Feodore  died  in  the  autumn  of 
1872,  after  which  her  Majesty  became  owner  of  the 


300    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

property.  Her  continental  holidays  were  spent  in 
various  places,  Coburg  occasionally  attracting  her. 
Baveno,  on  Lake  Maggiore,  was  the  chosen  spot  in 
1879,  and  there,  though  it  rained  nearly  all  the  time, 
she  passed  her  days  in  the  beautiful  garden;  from 
there  she  went  to  Les  Rosieres  at  Mentone,  where, 
from  her  window,  she  could  look  down  on  a  forest  of 
orange  and  citron  trees. 

In  1880  she  went  again  to  the  Villa  Hohenlohe,  and 
thence  to  the  castle  at  Darmstadt,  where  again  she 
lived,  her  mind  filled  with  memories  and  regrets,  in 
her  dead  daughter's  rooms. 

While  she  was  there  two  things  happened.  One 
was  the  engagement,  made  by  Bismarck,  between 
Prince  William  of  Prussia  and  Augusta  Victoria, 
daughter  of  Frederick  of  Schleswig-Holstein-Sonden- 
burg-Augustenburg,  and  granddaughter  of  Feodore. 
Bismarck's  choice  was  governed  by  his  hatred  of  the 
Crown  Princess,  her  sharp  intellect  and  her  English 
leanings,  which  made  him  look  around  for  the  most 
German  of  German  princesses,  one  who  would  never 
think  of  opposing  his  rule.  Augusta  Victoria  was  the 
embodiment  of  his  ideal ;  domestic  and  economical  by 
necessity,  the  child  of  a  mother  whose  intelligence 
was  far  from  strong,  all  her  qualities  were  simply 
housewifely.  The  engagement  being  an  accomplished 
fact,  Bismarck  caused  articles  and  paragraphs  to 
appear  in  all  the  papers  praising  the  Princess  for  her 
German  manners,  her  German  appearance,  her  Ger- 
man ways,  until  the  gilded  youth  of  Berlin  jokingly 
declared  that  her  only  use  was  to  make  sweets  and 


THE  GERMAN   INVASION  301 

jam;  to  which  Prince  William  replied,  with  pointed 
irony  against  his  mother,  that  a  wife  who  could  make 
sweets  was  preferable  to  one  who  could  discuss  the 
Constitution.  The  second  event  was  the  birth  of  a 
romance  between  Princess  Beatrice,  the  "  permanent 
Princess,"  as  some  one  called  her,  and  Prince  Henry 
of  Battenberg. 

Princess  Beatrice  had  for  years  been  her  mother's 
shadow;  flower  shows,  bazaars,  Highland  servants' 
balls,  secluded  visits  abroad,  quiet  existence  at 
Osborne,  Balmoral  or  Windsor,  had  made  up  the  sum 
of  her  days ;  all  punctuated  by  dreary  drives  to  tombs 
and  mausoleums  and  accompanied  by  all  the  varying 
moods  of  her  royal  mother,  who  could  be  very  cross 
at  times ;  she  could,  "  for  no  reason,  be  arbitrary, 
contest  a  point  and  close  the  argument  without  further 
discussion  "  (Quarterly  Review], 

It  is  said  that  Princess  Beatrice  and  Prince  Henry 
became  engaged  secretly  in  1881,  but  the  secret  was 
well  kept,  even  from  the  Queen. 

In  1882  Victoria  stayed  at  Mentone  for  a  month; 
in  1883  she  had  intended  visiting  Darmstadt  again, 
for  she  had  arranged  a  marriage  between  her  then 
favourite  Battenberg,  Louis,  and  her  granddaughter, 
Victoria  of  Hesse,  they  being  first  cousins  once 
removed.  However,  her  health  was  in  far  too  pre- 
carious a  state,  and  her  sprained  knee  made  it  impos- 
sible for  her  to  move  about,  for  it  was  nearly  a  year 
from  her  fall  on  the  stairs  before  the  Queen  could 
walk,  even  with  the  aid  of  sticks. 

This  Battenberg  marriage  caused  more  consterna- 


tion  in  Germany  than  did  that  of  Frederica.  The 
Emperor  William  actually  forbade  it;  the  Princess 
had  her  grandmother  at  her  back,  however,  and  a 
grandmother  who  was  not  likely  to  defer  to  the  scruples 
of  another  monarch  in  such  a  matter.  So  keenly 
necessary  did  the  Queen  consider  her  presence  to 
make  the  affair  go  off  smoothly,  that  a  few  days  after 
the  funeral  of  Prince  Leopold  she  went  to  Hesse- 
Darmstadt,  where  the  wedding  was  held  on  April  26, 
1884,  the  two  brothers,  Alexander  and  Henry,  being 
there.  Three  things  happened  at  this  visit :  the  first 
being  the  marked  attentions  shown  by  Alexander 
Battenberg  to  Princess  Victoria  of  Prussia,  daughter 
of  the  Crown  Prince,  which  raised  very  rufHed  feelings 
on  the  part  of  the  Prussian  royalties. 

Another  event  was  the  confession  of  the  secret  be- 
tween Henry  and  Princess  Beatrice  to  Queen  Victoria, 
which  caused  a  great  upheaval.  It  was  one  matter  to 
allow  one  out  of  a  multitude  of  granddaughters  to 
marry  a  handsome  young  man  without  prospects,  but 
quite  another  thing  to  approve  of  the  same  fate  for 
the  daughter  of  the  most  important  royalty  in  the 
world.  So  the  Princess  went  through  a  strenuous 
interval  before  her  royal  mother  calmed  down  and 
considered  the  net  advantages  to  herself  of  such  a 
match.  The  more  she  considered  the  more  solid  she 
saw  these  advantages  to  be,  and  soon  became  as  keen 
on  it  as  was  Princess  Beatrice. 

The  third  event — for  a  little  time  kept  secret — on 
being  revealed  produced  a  more  terrible  explosion 
than  anything  that  had  gone  before.  It  was  the 


THE   GERMAN   INVASION  303 

private  marriage,  on  the  very  night  of  his  daughter's 
wedding,  of  the  Grand  Duke  Louis  with  Countess 
Kalomine,  another  nobody  from  the  royal  point  of 
view. 

The  old  William  of  Prussia  and  Victoria  joined 
hands  over  this!:  the  one  from  Imperial  pride  and  the 
other  from  pride  and  sentiment,  for  the  Queen  re- 
garded a  second  marriage  as  something  irreligious, 
if  not  actually  blasphemous.  The  two  monarchs 
worked  so  hard  over  the  affair  that  in  a  few  months 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Leipzig  decided  that  Countess 
Kalomine  was  not  legally  the  wife  of  Duke  Louis, 
though  it  was  said  that  justice  and  common  sense  were 
on  the  lady's  side.  It  is  curious  to  see  that  in  all 
these  cases  the  man  who  was  a  nobody  from  the  royal 
point  of  view  was  eligible,  but  the  woman  who  was 
not  royal  was  a  person  to  be  scorned.  It  was  Victoria's 
way. 

The  engagement  of  Princess  Beatrice  was  not 
publicly  announced  until  the  end  of  November,  when 
it  created  a  stir  in  England,  public  opinion  being 
intensely  against  it.  People  reasoned  that  here  was 
another  German,  a  lieutenant  in  the  Prussian  army 
with  pay  of  about  ,£70  a  year,  who  would  have  to  be 
supported  by  them — and  there  were  already  too  many 
such. 

Henry's  elder  brother  Louis  had  become  a  com- 
mander in  the  navy,  raised  over  the  heads  of  English 
officers ;  Prince  Christian,  comfortably  settled  with  a 
good  income  in  a  comfortable  house  in  Windsor  Park, 
had  no  need  to  seek  for  a  sinecure,  or  a  position 


304     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

with  emolument;  Count  Gleichen  was  Constable  of 
Windsor  Castle  and  an  admiral  of  the  British  Fleet; 
Prince  Edward  of  Saxe-Weimar  was  moved  from  the 
Government  House  at  Portsmouth  and  given  the  com- 
mand of  the  Forces  in  Ireland  early  in  1885,  a  post 
which  should  have  been  bestowed  upon  an  English 
soldier;  Prince  Leiningen,  commander  of  the  Queen's 
yacht,  was*  made  vice-admiral;  Princess  Frederica 
and  her  husband  were  always  with  us;  Prince  Teck 
was  raising  comment  at  the  time  through  alleged 
extravagance,  a  sale  of  "  surplus  "  furniture  having 
been  effected  at  Kensington  Palace. 

Really  the  most   loyal  had  some  cause   for   com- 
plaint at  this  German  invasion;  but  Victoria  did  not 
mind,    and   calmly   went  on   dealing   out  posts   and 
honours  in  the  face  of  all  grumblers.     She  could  not 
understand  that  her  people  were  a  power  with  which 
the  sovereign  should  deal,  but  went  straight  over  all 
their  susceptibilities  and  prejudices,  never  failing  to 
make  a  demand  when  she  needed  their  money.    What 
is  the  use  of  being  a  queen  if  you  cannot  do  as  you 
like?     The  Prince  of  Wales  had  a  far  finer  sense  of 
delicacy ;  that  is  to  say,  the  somewhat  brutal  Georgian 
characteristics  were  in  him  modified  by  generosity  and 
perception.     His  eldest  boy  came  of  age  in  January 
1885,  but  though  he  himself  was  deeply  in  debt,  and 
had  an  income  which,  large  as  it  was,  did  not  do  all 
that  was  required  of  it,  he  asked  no  settlement  for 
his  son.     His  horror  at  the  inevitable  Radical  com- 
ments made  him  decide  to  leave  the  field  open  to  his 
sister  Beatrice.     On  her  account  the  Queen  made  the 


THE  GERMAN   INVASION  305 

usual  demands — a  dowry  of  £30,000  and  £6000  a  year 
—and  the  weary  Commons,  seeing  at  last  a  temporary 
end  of  royal  marriages  in  sight,  gave,  after  the  usual 
strong  protests,  and  with  thirty-eight  dissentients,  their 
assent. 

If  Germany  was  astonished  at  the  Frederica  mar- 
riage and  affronted  at  that  of  the  Louis  Battenberg's, 
it  was  in  a  state  of  stupefaction  over  the  Henry 
Battenberg  alliance.  Even  the  Princess  Royal  could 
not  be  reconciled  to  it,  and  as  usual  said  what  she 
thought.  The  Prince  of  Wales  also  did  his  utmost 
to  oppose  it,  and  altogether  discord  was  rampant  in 
the  royal  family.  This  was  shown  in  the  first  week 
of  January  1885,  when  the  Queen  and  the  permanent 
Princess  absented  themselves  from  the  great  coming- 
of-age  celebrations  at  Sandringham.  Prince  Henry, 
who  was  in  England  in  December,  left  our  shores 
without  receiving  the  congratulations  either  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  or  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh.  It  is 
easy  to  imagine  the  disgust  of  the  Duchess  of  Edin- 
burgh, Grand  Duchess  Marie  Alexandrovna,  over  so 
unpretending  a  bridegroom. 

Even  Ernst  of  Saxe-Coburg  ranged  himself  against 
the  Queen  and  refused  to  be  present  at  the  wedding, 
which  wedding,  however,  was  really  of  supreme  im- 
portance only  to  the  chief  persons  concerned.  Prince 
Henry  was  constantly  coming  over  to  England,  and 
the  lovers  had  opportunities  of  meeting  when  in  April 
Victoria  went  first  to  Aix-les-Bains  and  then  to  Darm- 
stadt, where  a  great-grandchild,  daughter  of  the  Louis 
Battenbergs,  was  christened. 


306    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

The  Queen  was  at  this  time,  1885,  not  quite  sixty- 
eight  years  of  age,  but  she  dressed  like  a  very  old 
woman,  and  it  was  quite  common  for  people  to  think 
of  her  as  aged.  The  following  paragraph  from  an 
unidentifiable  newspaper  cutting  gives  an  interesting 
picture  of  her  as  she  appeared  just  before  going 
abroad — 

"  Here  comes  the  Queen  !  The  cry  is  raised  far  off, 
and  at  a  rapid  rate  on  comes  the  imposing  cavalcade, 
through  loud  buzzing  of  the  multitude  of  lips,  '  The 
Queen !  The  Queen !  '  As  usual  there  is  a  small 
military  escort,  cavalry  with  drawn  swords  and  others. 
Then  come  the  outriders,  jockeys  on  horseback,  riding 
rapidly  and  clad  in  the  deepest  mourning  livery.  The 
Queen's  carriage  is  drawn  by  four  splendid  horses 
conducted  by  a  postilion  mounted  on  one  of  them. 
Two  Highlanders  now  occupy  the  seat  once  so  proudly 
held  by  John  Brown,  one  of  them  being  his  brother 
George,  who  is  now  with  the  Queen.  At  sight  of  the 
aged  sovereign  every  hat  is  raised.  The  great  lady 
shows  the  years  of  sorrow.  Her  hair  is  white  and 
her  face  careworn.  She  is  dressed  in  the  very  deepest 
mourning,  with  heavy  crepe  veil  and  the  widow's  cap. 
Beside  her  sits  Princess  Beatrice,  clad  in  what  is  called 
half-mourning,  with  a  purple  velvet  bonnet,  and  a 
mantle  embroidered  with  the  same  colour.  On  the 
front  seat  of  the  carriage  is  Prince  Henry  of  Batten- 
berg,  the  Princess's  affianced  husband.  He  is  a  fine- 
looking  man,  with  what  I  should  call  features  rather 
square  cut.  One  can  well  understand  the  rumour  that 
on  both  sides  this  may  be  a  love  match." 


THE  GERMAN   INVASION  307 

During  that  short  stay  in  London  the  little  party 
went  to  the  Botanical  Gardens,  and  coming  away  the 
off-leader  took  fright,  plunged  and  kicked,  and  only 
with  great  difficulty  was  got  under  control.  The  lead- 
ing pair  had  to  be  detached,  and  the  Queen  drove  away 
with  only  two  horses. 

By  July,  when  the  wedding  took  place  at  Osborne, 
most  of  the  quarrels  had  at  least  been  smoothed  over; 
the  Prince  of  Wales  gave  away  the  bride,  the  Princess 
of  Wales  supported  the  Queen  at  the  ceremony  in 
Whippingham  Church.  Prince  Louis  of  Hesse,  white- 
washed by  this  time,  was  of  necessity  present,  but  there 
was  no  representative  at  all  from  Prussia,  and  the 
daughters  of  the  Crown  Princess  did  not  join  the 
bridesmaids  as  did  the  young  Princesses  of  Wales. 
Gladstone  was  carefully  omitted  from  the  invitation 
list. 

Directly  after  the  marriage  Henry  of  Battenberg 
was  created  a  royal  prince  by  the  Queen,  which 
completed  the  consternation  among  her  Prussian 
cousins,  who  decided  that  her  Majesty  was  insulting 
them,  and  all  foreign  Courts  refused  to  recognize  the 
title,  which,  however,  gave  him  in  England  precedence 
over  the  husband  of  Princess  Louise,  the  Marquis  of 
Lome,  never  too  well  treated  by  the  family  into  which 
he  had  married. 

Victoria  further  bestowed  upon  her  new  son-in-law 
the  Order  of  the  Garter,  a  bestowal  which  entailed  an 
outlay  of  about  £500,  which  she  intended  to  defray, 
but  when  it  came  to  the  point  she  thought  it  better  to 
let  the  privilege  devolve  upon  her  faithful  subjects. 


308     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

The  German  comments  upon  this  new  Royal 
Highness  aroused  her  defiance,  and  she  looked 
round  to  see  how  she  could  further  prove  her  power 
in  the  making  of  princes.  Count  Gleichen,  another 
son  of  her  sister  Feodore,  had  in  1861  married  a 
daughter  of  Sir  George  Seymour,  and  this  being  a 
morganatic  marriage  he  had  renounced  his  rank  as 
Prince  Victor  Hohenlohe,  taking  instead  a  minor 
title  of  his  father's.  The  Queen  commanded  him  to 
resume  his  original  title,  but  of  course  the  German 
relatives  refused  to  recognize  this,  though  Prince 
Victor's  children  are  cousins  to  the  present  German 
Empress. 

Early  in  August  Prince  Henry's  parents,  Alexander 
of  Hesse  and  Princess  Battenberg,  were  guests  at 
Windsor,  and  then  the  royal  party  went  northwards, 
as  the  bridal  pair  were  to  live  with  the  Queen.  Prince 
Henry  was  very  obedient  in  those  days,  for  he,  and 
with  him  Louis  of  Hesse,  wore  kilts  and  sporrans  on 
the  journey,  and  he  had  to  wear  these  breezy  garments 
for  three  months,  until  chill  November  nearing  its  end 
he  was  permitted  to  return  to  town  with  his  wife  and 
mamma-in-law. 

The  Queen  did  not  often  let  things  be  done  in  Scot- 
land in  a  half-hearted  way.  All  the  male  servants  and 
relatives  had  to  don  the  kilt,  the  change  of  costume 
having  to  be  made  en  route  in  the  train.  Her  love  for 
the  Stuarts  made  her  choose  the  Royal  Stuart  tartan 
plaid  as  the  dominant  adornment  of  Balmoral.  Thus 
all  the  carpets  were  made  of  it,  and  much  of  the 
furniture  covered  with  it,  while  the  thistle  was 


THE   GERMAN    INVASION  309 

embroidered  on  her  chairs,  and  her  favourite  dinner 
service  was  bordered  with  tartan.  It  must  have  been 
hideously  depressing,  but  she  loved  it.  One  of  her 
most  cherished  possessions  was  a  little  pin-cushion  on 
tartan  wooden  mounts  with  a  portrait  of  the  Prince 
on  one  side,  and  this  was  said  to  be  always  on  her 
dressing-table.  This  reminds  me  of  an  assertion  1 
have  seen  somewhere  that  on  her  breakfast-table  every 
Sunday,  and  only  on  Sunday,  two  little  silver  salt- 
cellars were  always  laid,  which  had  been  given  her 
by  John  Brown.  When  in  the  north  she  chose  Scot- 
tish doctors,  and  it  is  on  record  that  one  newly 
appointed  medical  professor  announced  the  honour  to 
his  class  by  writing  on  the  blackboard  that  he  had 
been  made  physician  to  the  Queen.  When  later  in 
the  day  he  looked  at  the  board  again  some  wag  had 
added  "  God  save  the  Queen." 

Once  Victoria  asked  a  crowd  to  Balmoral.  It  was 
in  1885,  when  the  British  Association  met  at  Aberdeen 
under  the  presidency  of  Lyon  Playfair,  and  she  first 
invited  him  and  Lord  Rayleigh,  the  Montreal  presi- 
dent, to  dine  and  sleep,  the  chief  point  of  conversation 
mentioned  being  her  description  of  the  Prince  Con- 
sort's interest  in  science.  This  meeting  probably 
suggested  an  invitation  to  all  the  members,  and  the 
newspapers  supplied  details  not  mentioned  in  the 
Memoirs  of  Sir  Lyon  Playfair,  by  Wemyss  Reid.  The 
British  Association  arrived  there,  but  found  that  both 
the  Queen  and  Princess  Beatrice  had  arranged  a  day's 
excursion  for  themselves  which  would  keep  them  away 
as  long  as  the  visitors  were  near  the  castle ;  and  prob- 


310    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

ably  the  former  never  knew  that  it  was  said  that  the 
accommodation  was  defective  and  the  luncheon-table 
somewhat  meagre.  A  very  different  reception  from 
that  accorded  to  the  British  Association  by  the  Queen 
and  Prince  Albert  in  1859. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

"  SHE    OUGHT   TO    BE   WHIPPED " 

"  Here  are  women — doting  wives  and  loving  mothers — quitting 
the  serene  and  holy  circle  of  their  own  hearths,  relinquishing  for 
an  appointed  term  the  happiness  and  tenderness  of  home,  to 
endure  a  glorifying  servitude  beneath  the  golden  yoke  of 
ceremony." — Douglas  Jerrold  on  Court  Ladies. 

"Then  comes  the  list  of  the  General  Committee  (of  the 
London  National  Society  for  Woman's  Suffrage).  We  see  the 
names  of  Mrs.  Somerville,  Miss  Nightingale,  Miss  Frances 
Cobb,  Miss  Martineau,  Mrs.  Grote,  Miss  Hosmer,  Madame 
Bodichon,  and  we  greet  the  owners  with  a  loving  smile,  and 
congratulate  them  on  fellowship  with  Charles  Kingsley,  Edwin 
Arnold,  Grote,  Masson,  F.  Palgrave,  Lyon  Playfair,  Huxley, 
Lord  Romilly,  F.  W.  Newman  and  Mill."—'  Punch,'  June  1868. 

THOUGH  Victoria  was  especially  keen  upon  bestow- 
ing honours  on  her  connections — when  Prince  George 
of  Wales  received  the  Garter  in  1885  ne  made  the 
twenty-eighth  royal  knight  of  the  Order,  as  against 
six  in  1837 — she  sometimes  thought  of  humbler  folk. 
Under  Disraeli's  advice  she  had  offered  Tennyson  a 
Baronetcy  and  Carlyle  the  Grand  Cross  of  the  Order 
of  the  Bath,  but  both  were  refused.  In  1883  Tennyson 
was  offered  a  Barony  and  Gladstone  urged  him  to 
accept  it,  telling  a  friend  that  the  only  thing  he  felt 
dubious  about  was  whether  Tennyson  would  insist 
upon  wearing  his  extraordinary  hat,  his  unfailing 

companion,  in  the  House  of  Lords.     Tennyson  was 

3" 


812    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

not  eager  to  take  the  new  rank,  but  eventually 
accepted  it. 

Arthur  Helps  and  Theodore  Martin,  two  of  Vic- 
toria's most  faithful  friends,  had  been  knighted  and 
invested  with  the  Order  of  the  Bath;  and  for  her 
magnificent  charity  Miss  Burdett  Coutts  was  made  a 
peeress  in  1871,  upon  which  Punch  declared  that  her 
old  title  of  Lady  Bountiful  could  never  be  forgotten. 
Ten  years  later  the  Baroness  married  William  Ash- 
mead-Bartlett,  she  being  then  sixty-seven  and  he  a 
young  man.  It  was  a  remarkable  marriage,  an  accen- 
tuation of  that  of  Disraeli  and  contracted  for  the  same 
motive,  that  an  ambitious  young  man  might  be  helped 
to  his  desires;  but  it  might  have  passed  without  great 
comment  had  not  her  Majesty  made  so  strong  a  protest 
against  it  and,  when  the  Baroness  persisted  in  her 
plans,  virtually  intimated  that  she  must  consider 
herself  in  permanent  disgrace. 

The  Queen's  ideal  of  womanhood  was  entirely 
Germanic;  that  is  to  say,  it  was  something  less  than 
reality  and  very  much  less  than  ideal.  She  was  fond 
of  talking  of  her  "  poor,  feeble  sex  "  and  of  "  female 
brains  being  overtaxed,"  repeating  and  thoroughly 
believing  all  the  nonsense  inculcated  by  Stockmar  and 
Prince  Albert;  and  this  explains  the  constant  pity 
she  expressed  for  herself,  "  a  poor,  weak  woman  "  who 
had  to  overtax  her  brains  doing  man's  work. 

A  clever  woman  she  always  avoided ;  it  is  doubtful 
whether  she  thought  such  a  one  quite  proper,  her 
conviction  being  that  a  woman's  interests  should  be 
limited  to  births,  marriages  and  deaths,  or,  to  put  the 


1  SHE  OUGHT  TO   BE  WHIPPED'     313 

sentiment  in  other  words,  to  children,  cooking  and 
church.  Other  subjects  should  be  left  to  the  stronger 
intellect  of  men,  to  whom  women  should  defer  even 
in  the  veriest  trifle.  Through  her  widowhood  more, 
than  in  her  married  life  Queen  Victoria  lived  up  to 
this  idea.  Her  politics — "  I  hate  politics,"  she  once 
said  to  Tennyson — were  based  upon  those  of  the 
Prince  Consort;  her  foreign  policy  was,  as  nearly  as 
she  could  make  it  so,  an  expression  of  the  views  he 
had  held  a  quarter  of  a  century  before;  her  habits 
were  still  those  once  encouraged  by  him.  She  never 
bought  new  clothes  without  consulting  her  memory 
of  his  tastes,  and  there  were  many  around  her  who 
wished  that  she  could  be  induced  to  wear  something 
less  dowdy  and  commonplace  than  the  garments  so 
inspired.  She  once  told  Theodore  Martin  that — 

"  He  would  not  have  allowed  me  or  any  of  our 
daughters  to  appear  in  any  dress  or  coiffure  or  bonnet 
not  becoming  or  proper,  and  he  would  have  made  us 
take  it  off.  I  never  bought  a  dress  or  bonnet  without 
consulting  him,  and  his  taste  was  always  good.  I 
remember  so  well  when  my  French  coiffeur  came  from 
Paris  every  year  and  brought  over  things  which  were 
tried  on,  the  Prince  has  come  in  and  said,  '  That  you 
shall  not  wear.' ' 

It  all  went  back  to  the  same  thing,  this  struggle — 
against  her  principles — to  do  intellectual  work,  this 
plain  dressing,  this  subservience  to  a  man's  will :  all 
meant  that  to  her  the  man  should  command  the 
woman's  obedience.  That  being  so,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  such  an  idea  as  Woman's  Franchise 


314     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

upset  her.  The  following  is  from  a  letter  of  hers 
on  the  subject,  again  to  Theodore  Martin — • 

'  The  Queen  is  most  anxious  to  enlist  every  one 
who  can  speak  or  write  to  join  in  checking  this 
mad,  wicked  folly  of  '  Woman's  Rights,'  with  all  its 
attendant  horrors,  on  which  her  poor,  feeble  sex  is 
bent,  forgetting  every  sense  of  womanly  feeling  and 
propriety.  Lady  [Harberton?]  ought  to  get  a  good 
whipping.  It  is  a  subject  which  makes  the  Queen 
so  furious  that  she  cannot  contain  herself.  God 
created  man  and  woman  different — then  let  them 
remain  each  in  their  own  position.  Tennyson  has 
some  beautiful  lines  on  the  difference  of  men  and 
women  in  The  Princess.  Woman  would  become  the 
most  hateful,  heartless  and  disgusting  of  human  beings 
were  she  allowed  to  unsex  herself,  and  where  would 
be  the  protection  which  man  was  intended  to  give  the 
weaker  sex  ? " 

I  have  always  enjoyed  this  letter.  It  is  practically 
the  basis  upon  which  the  "  antis  "  have  founded  their 
arguments  or  want  of  arguments  :  "  God  created  man 
and  woman  different."  That  suggests  so  many  ques- 
tions to  the  inquiring  mind.  Is  God  really  interested 
in  the  merits  of  skirts  over  bloomers,  in  twaddle  about 
dress,  over  squabbles  about  politics,  in  the  brainless 
woman  over  the  thoughtful  one,  in  the  idle  over  the 
self-supporting  woman?  But  across  the  lighter  feel- 
ing that  this  letter  raises  comes  one  of  disgust  that 
the  Queen's  respect  for  her  own  sex  was  so  small  as 
to  allow  her  to  suggest  indignity  for  one  with  whom 
she  disagreed. 


<  SHE  OUGHT  TO   BE  WHIPPED'     315 

This  belittling  of  women  was  not  confined  to  Queen 
Victoria.  For  many  years  the  Annual  Register  was 
edited  by  two  ladies,  the  sisters  of  Herman  Merivale, 
whose  ill-health  "devolved  the  work  upon  them.  Their 
account  of  the  Franco-Prussian  war  was  so  admirable 
that  another  publisher  wished  to  issue  it  as  a  separate 
volume.  However,  on  finding  that  the  authors  were 
women  he  decided  that  republication  was  out  of  the 
question,  as  it  was  not  considered  proper  that  women 
should  be  entrusted  with  such  high  work. 

On  this  subject  Victoria  should  have  liked  Glad- 
stone, for  he  agreed  with  her  on  the  Suffrage;  but 
Disraeli,  when  appealed  to  before  his  last  Govern- 
ment, gave  Miss  Frances  Power  Cobb  authority  to 
announce  that  he  should  vote  for  the  measure.  "  Mr. 
Gladstone,  however,  has  declared  that  he  will  oppose 
it;  and  the  Government  opposition  will  be  fatal  to  us. 
Let  him  be  known  as  William  the  Woman-hater."  So 
said  Miss  Cobb  to  the  meeting  she  had  called;  and 
Gladstone  had  the  intellectual  women  against  him 
everywhere. 

But,  as  has  been  said,  the  Queen  did  not  like  Glad- 
stone, and  more,  she  did  not  like  Mrs.  Gladstone, 
who  was  far  too  able  a  woman  to  please  her  taste. 
The  Gladstones  on  rare  occasions  went  to  dine  and 
sleep  at  Windsor,  and  one  reads  of  Mrs.  Gladstone 
invited  to  lunch  there  and  taking  it  with  those  whom 
W.  H.  Brookfield  facetiously  called  the  servants,  the 
ladies-in-waiting  and  the  grooms  of  the  chamber,  etc., 
and  then  having  five  minutes'  conversation  with  her 
Majesty,  probably  both  being  very  glad  when  the 


316     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

restrained  and  chilly  meeting  was  over.  On  one 
occasion  the  Prime  Minister  had  some  adventure  in 
a  fog,  in  which  a  horse  tried  to  go  upstairs,  which  was 
too  good  a  story  not  to  be  repeated  everywhere.  Being 
commanded  to  dine  and  sleep  at  Windsor,  a  lady  in 
the  train  discussed  with  him  the  fog,  the  horse  and 
the  staircase  at  length;  others  did  the  same  on  the 
way.  At  the  castle  Sir  Henry  Ponsonby  was  the  first 
to  allude  to  it,  then  came  Sir  John  Cowell,  Master  of 
the  Household.  To  all  Gladstone  gave  the  same 
reply  :  "  I  assure  you  it  was  much  exaggerated."  After 
dinner,  in  the  corridor,  her  Majesty  came  to  speak  to 
him,  saying,  "We  have  had  dreadful  weather  lately, 
and  you  must  have  had  a  bad  experience  the  other 
night."  "  Oh,  ma'am,  I  assure  you  too  much  has  been 
made  of  it,"  was  his  answer.  And  some  one  remarked 
what  a  solecism  it  was  that  a  man  of  Gladstone's  age 
and  eminence  should  go  to  Windsor — dress-coat  and 
pantaloons — stay  the  night,  and  all  the  talk  he  had 
with  his  sovereign  was  a  word  or  two  about  the  fog. 

The  Queen's  feelings  on  femininity  were  not  con- 
fined to  the  question  of  the  vote ;  she  further  expressed 
it  to  Lord  Herschell  after  Tennyson's  death,  when  he 
was  commanded  to  a  dine-and-sleep  visit.  Miss  Jean 
Ingelow,  a  pleasant  but  mediocre  poet,  was  spoken  of 
at  the  royal  table,  the  Queen  turning  to  Herschell  and 
saying — 

"  I  have  had  Miss  Ingelow's  claim  to  the  Laureate- 
ship  put  before  me,  and  I  admire  her  poetry  extremely, 
but  I  do  not  consider  that  a  woman  can  properly  fill 
the  post  of  Poet  Laureate." 


'SHE  OUGHT  TO  BE  WHIPPED'     317 

Herschell  bowed  acquiescence  and  did  not  utter 
his  thoughts,  which  were  that  "  if  one  woman  can  fill 
the  post  of  Queen  of  England  and  Empress  of  India, 
another  might  be  trusted  to  write  a  royal  ode  now  and 
then."  1 

But  though  Victoria  could  not  stand  a  clever  woman, 
she  also  did  not  like  a  socially  stupid  one,  being  very 
impatient  of  dulness.  If  some  one  praised  a  lady  as 
good  and  kind,  the  answer  might  be — 

'Yes,  but  I've  no  patience  with  her;  she  is  so 
stupid." 

This  did  not  mean  that  she  was  drawing  compari- 
sons between  her  own  powers  and  those  of  the  other, 
but  that  there  must  be  no  stupidity  in  relation  to 
herself  and  her  affairs ;  it  might  clog  the  wheels  upon 
which  the  State  ran. 

Even  for  intellectual  men  she  had  no  affinity.  That 
authors  were  doing  a  good  work  she  realized,  but  it 
did  not  touch  her  life  or  interests,  and  so  she  left  all 
such  out  in  the  cold.  She  made  a  friend  of  Tennyson 
because  some  sentiments  in  his  incomparable  In 
Memoriam  seemed  to  fit  her  case,  and  she  once 
arranged  a  meeting  with  Carlyle,  Browning,  Grote, 
Dickens  and  Lyell  at  the  house  of  Lady  Augusta 
Stanley.  This  was  the  exception  which  proved  the 
rule  very  sharply,  though  her  flatterers  have  used  it 
as  a  proof  that  she  was  deeply  interested  in  literature. 

To  Browning,  who  had  just  published  The  Book 
and  the  Ring,  she  said,  "  Have  you  been  writing 
anything  lately?"  As  she  continued  to  stand  all  the 

1  Some  Memories  of  Victorian  London.     By  L.  B.  Walford. 


318    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

visitors  stood  also,  and  Carlyle  was  both  old  and  frail. 
He  was  talking  with  her  Majesty,  "launching  forth 
his  great,  rolling  periods  as  only  he  can,"  until  the 
pain  in  his  back  was  almost  unendurable.  "  We  who 
knew  the  Queen  so  well  were  delighted  to  see  the 
pleasure  that  her  Majesty  was  receiving  from  the  con- 
versation, but  I  must  own  both  the  dean  and  I  were 
apprehensive  for  her  aged  subject,"  said  Lady  Augusta 
in  telling  the  story.  At  last  the  Sage  of  Chelsea  took 
the  matter  into  his  own  hands.  Seizing  a  chair,  he 
said — 

"If  your  Majesty  would  please  to  be  seated  we 
could  carry  on  the  subject  with  greater  ease." 

Her  Majesty  took  a  chair,  still  talking,  and  Carlyle 
was  happy  for  the  rest  of  the  meeting,  but  Victoria 
was  not  quite  so  pleased.  The  old  man  declared 
afterwards  that  it  was  "  impossible  to  imagine  a  politer 
little  woman;  nothing  the  least  imperious;  all  gentle, 
all  sincere  .  .  .  makes  you  feel,  too,  if  you  have  any 
sense  in  you,  that  she  is  a  queen." 

Victoria  said  of  him  that  he  was  gruff-tempered, 
if  not  unmannerly.  She  could  not  quite  forgive  the 
liberty  he  had  taken. 

This  importance  of  being  allowed  to  sit  in  the 
Queen's  presence  reminds  me  of  another  story  given 
in  a  magazine  article,  and  somewhat  resembling  the 
Carlyle  episode.  The  Queen,  the  Empress  Frederick 
and  fifteen  other  royalties  when  at  Sandringham  deter- 
mined to  pay  what  was  somewhat  loosely  regarded 
as  a  surprise  visit  to  a  neighbouring  vicar.  Two  men- 
servants  were  thoughtfully  sent  in  advance  with  cakes 


'SHE  OUGHT  TO  BE  WHIPPED'     319 

and  delicacies  to  lay  the  tables  for  tea.  The  hostess, 
as  was  the  custom  a  few  years  ago,  poured  out  tea 
for  this  regal  crowd,  and,  as  may  be  imagined,  was 
kept  hard  at  work.  That  task  over,  she  was  not  asked 
to  sit  down  in  her  own  drawing-room,  and  so  stood 
for  a  long  period,  until  a  princess  implored  her  mother 
to  ask  their  hostess  to  take  a  seat,  when  the  permis- 
sion was  most  graciously  given.  Let  us  hope  that  this 
example  of  discourtesy  is  not  true,  for  if  it  were  what 
a  condemnation  it  offers  of  the  ways  of  the  Court  then. 
How  could  any  writer  use  such  a  word  as  graciously 
over  such  a  rudely  delayed  invitation  ? 

But  to  return  to  the  Queen's  views  upon  her  sex. 
They  were  perfectly  sincere,  for  she  had  been 
inoculated  with  such  ideas  by  one  whom  she  thought 
infallible,  but  they  had  their  inevitable  consequence. 
A  man  might  sin,  yet  kiss  her  Majesty's  hand,  but 
should  the  merest  suspicion  fall  upon  a  woman  she 
at  once  became  ostracized.  Never  until  Victoria's 
time  was  this  distinction  so  bitterly  marked,  and  it 
was  the  result,  not  of  a  high  ideal  of  morals,  but  of  a 
low  ideal  of  womanhood.  And  this  gives  the  strongest 
reason  for  the  unpopularity  of  the  late  Queen  among 
intellectual  women.  No  woman  likes  or  trusts  that 
woman  who  regards  her  own  sex  meanly.  It  seems 
to  me,  however,  that  Victoria's  attitude  in  making  this 
great  difference  between  men  and  women  has  had 
one  good  result,  in  that  it  has  so  shocked  and  incensed 
women  that  they  in  their  turn  tend  to  demand  from 
men  the  cleanness  that  has  been  demanded  from  them. 
For,  whatever  we  may  say  or  think  of  the  Court,  no 


320    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

one  can  doubt  that  it  does  influence  what  may  be 
termed  the  fashion  in  morals  of  the  nation.  Albert 
and  Victoria  set  themselves  to  impress  on  the  people 
a  new  ideal  of  domestic  life,  and  they  succeeded  to 
a  great  extent,  at  least  they  went  half-way  to  success. 
Our  present  royalties  do  not  talk  about  such  aims, 
for  the  habit  is  made,  but  their  influence  is  quite  as 
strong. 

Nothing  could  have  persuaded  Victoria  that  God 
had  given  women  brains  to  use  just  as  He  had  given 
them  to  men.  She  would  have  answered  as  before, 
"  God  made  man  and  woman  different,"  and  have  felt 
that  there  was  no  appeal  against  the  way  in  which 
she  translated  the  words;  and  she  would  have  also 
felt  in  this  as  in  other  things  that  the  fact  that  she 
was  queen  rendered  it  even  more  impossible  that  she 
could  be  mistaken,  her  reverence  for  the  royal  position 
being  as  deep  as  her  belief  in  her  own  Tightness. 

This  was  shown  on  the  publication  of  the  first  part 
of  Charles  Greville's  diaries  in  1874,  which  caused 
her  much  annoyance.  Greville  had  been  Clerk  to  the 
Privy  Council,  and  his  journals  dealt,  not  with  the 
Council,  but  with  the  public  events  and  politics  of 
his  period,  including  much  criticism  of  royalties  and 
well-known  people.  He  died  in  1864,  leaving  these 
diaries  to  his  friend  Henry  Reeve  to  edit  and  publish. 
Reeve  allowed  ten  years  to  elapse  and  then  issued 
the  first  three  volumes,  which  ended  with  the  death 
of  William  IV.  Eleven  days  after  the  publication  of 
the  work  the  Queen  sent  Reeve,  who  believed  that 
she  had  not  really  read  the  book,  but  only  newspaper 


'SHE  OUGHT  TO  BE  WHIPPED'     321 

extracts,  a  message  by  Sir  Arthur  Helps  expressing 
her  disapproval.  She  found  three  causes  for  com- 
plaint :  that  the  book  was  disparaging  to  her  family ; 
that  it  tended  to  weaken  the  Monarchy;  that  it  pro- 
ceeded from  official  persons.  Reeve  begged  Helps 
to  reply,  with  his  humble  duty,  that  the  book  showed 
that  if  Monarchy  had  really  been  endangered  it  was 
by  the  depravity  of  George  IV  and  the  absurdities  of 
William  IV,  but  that  under  her  Majesty's  reign  it  had 
been  stronger  than  ever;  an  explanation  probably 
quite  as  annoying  to  her  as  the  book  had  been.  She 
never  forgave  it,  and  though  Reeve  was  entitled  to 
the  K.C.B.  for  his  long  service  as  Clerk  of  Appeals 
to  the  Privy  Councils,  he  never  received  the  honour. 

Reeve  called  upon  the  old  Duchess  of  Cambridge 
one  day,  and  found  her  much  interested  in  the  book, 
which  was  being  read  to  her,  she  frequently  adding 
further  amusing  recollections. 

The  second  series  of  these  memoirs  was  published 
in  1885,  and  the  third  series  two  years  later.  Reeve 
sent  copies  to  Sir  Henry  Ponsonby,  who  laid  them 
before  the  Queen,  but  she  made  no  further  sign. 

Queen  Victoria  had  no  more  interest  in  art  and 
artists  than  she  had  in  literature  and  authors;  as  the 
writer  of  the  article  in  The  Quarterly  Review  says,  she 
never  even  "took  the  right  kind  of  interest  in  the 
beautiful  objects  she  possessed  in  her  palaces,  and  it 
is  mere  courtly  complaisance  to  pretend  that  she  did." 
There  were  two  or  three  German  artists,  such  as 
Winterhalter  and  von  Angeli,  to  whose  work  she  was 
accustomed,  and  that  their  portraits  were  bad  she  never 


322    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

could  see.  On  being  urged  to  sit  to  G.  F.  Watts, 
who  would  produce  a  splendid  portrait,  she  replied, 
"  Perhaps  so,  but  I'm  afraid  it  would  be  ugly." 

Disraeli,  however,  had  hanging  in  his  dining-room 
a  half-length  copy  of  one  of  von  Angeli's  portraits 
of  her,  which  she  had  presented  to  him,  and  which, 
as  Lord  Ronald  Gower  says,  was  a  standing  proof 
of  her  utter  want  of  vanity,  for  it  was  almost  a 
caricature. 

Frankly,  the  Queen  did  not  care  for  art,  though 
she  was  always  making  little  sketches,  and  though  the 
Marquis  de  Foulon,  a  courtier  as  well  as  a  Frenchman, 
who  had  taught  her  drawing  in  her  girlhood,  told  her 
that,  had  she  not  been  born  to  wear  a  crown,  she  would 
have  made  one  of  the  best  "  female "  artists  of  the 
age! 

That  her  Majesty  wielded  the  pen  everybody  knows, 
but  not  so  many  will  remember  the  issue,  about  twenty 
years  ago,  of  a  terrible  book,  "published  with  the 
gracious  permission  and  approval  of"  the  Queen,  and 
named  Her  Majesty's  Dolls.  No  one  with  any  artistic 
understanding  could  have  allowed  this  to  appear,  but 
Mr.  Harry  Furniss,  in  his  volume  Harry  Furniss  at 
Home,  puts  the  responsibility  on  other  shoulders  when 
he  says  :  "  The  Queen's  Dolls  compliments  the  public 
by  playing  down  to  its  limited  understanding  of  art 
matters."  Probably  he  was  right,  for  the  public,  in 
spite  of  its  occasional  spasms  of  republicanism,  is  the 
essence  of  snobbery  in  matters  royal. 


CHAPTER    XX 

GLADSTONE    AGAIN,    ALAS ! 

"  Oh,  cry  of  Tory,  cry  of  Rad, 

I   hear  you  ere  your  time ; 
The  Tory  shout  is  faint  and  sad, 

And  suits  an  artless  rhyme. 
Old  England's  honour  long  is  dead, 

Her  wealth  is  like  to  die; 
The  gilt  is  off  the  gingerbread, 

The  bloom  is  off  the  rye. 

To  Radicals  Trevelyan  gave 

An  eligible  shout; 
Their  funny  banners  wild  they  wave, 

And  shriek  and  strut  about ; 
And  still  they  clamour,   'midst  applause, 

From  stump  and  brake  and  van, 
We're  fighting  for  the  same  old  cause, 

And  for   the  same   old   man." — Punch. 

"  Sackery-down,  the  Ministers  frown, 
The  Queen  is  again  so  far  from  town ; 
She  summons  them  up,   she  summons  them  down, 
Because  she  won't  travel  to  London  town." 

Contemporary  Verse. 

THE  year  1884  had  been  an  arduous  one  for  her 
Majesty's  Government,  for  as  the  demands  for  reform 
rose,  so  did  the  opposition  to  reform  strengthen;  as 
Irish  discontent  grew  more  bitter,  so  the  more  violent 
became  its  actions,  and  as  violence  begets  violence, 
so  the  determination  to  increase  coercion  grew  more 
energetic. 

Lord  Salisbury  was  the  head  of  the  Opposition,  and 

323 


324    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Lord  Randolph  Churchill  had  inspired  a  small  but 
noisy  party  with  his  own  views.  It  was  under  his 
clever  initiative  that  the  epidemic  of  "slumming" 
spread  among  the  aristocracy,  and  ladies  made  a 
fashion  of  studying  the  most  sordid  aspects  of  London. 
Most  of  it  was  of  no  use,  but  after  the  first  resentment 
the  East-Enders  grew  to  tolerate  and  then  to  like  some 
of  the  efforts  put  forth  to  amuse  and  help  them, 
and  at  least  it  proved  that  great  ladies  thought  they 
looked  upon  them  as  human.  Many  of  us  remember 
the  constant  conjunction  of  the  words  "classes"  and 
"masses."  Even  the  Queen  was  drawn  to  the  East 
End  to  open  the  People's  Palace,  and  at  least  the 
movement  gave  a  fillip  to  the  Conservatives  by  impress- 
ing upon  the  poor  that  they  had  friends  in  that  party. 

The  Bill  for  extending  the  County  Franchise,  which 
passed  by  a  majority  of  one  hundred  and  forty,  was 
thrown  out  by  the  Lords,  and  Lord  Salisbury  incon- 
sequently  demanded  that  Parliament  should  be  dis- 
solved. Gladstone  declared  privately  that  if  it  did 
dissolve  it  should  be  upon  organic  change  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  and  there  gradually  arose  much  the  same 
position  as  that  which  had  obtained  between  the  two 
Houses  over  the  Irish  Church  Bill,  and  once  again 
Victoria,  half  convinced  that  the  reform  was  necessary, 
set  herself  to  bridge  the  gulf  between  the  Lords 
and  the  Commons,  through  Sir  Henry  Ponsonby,  who 
was  an  unacknowledged  statesman  of  a  high  order. 
Eventually  Gladstone  wrote  "to  tender  his  grateful 
thanks  to  your  Majesty  for  the  wise,  gracious  and 
steady  influence  on  your  Majesty's  part,  which  has  so 


GLADSTONE   AGAIN,  ALAS!          325 

powerfully  contributed  to  bring  about  this  accomplish- 
ment and  to  avert  a  serious  crisis."  To  which  the 
Queen  replied,  "  I  gladly  and  thankfully  return  your 
telegrams.  To  be  able  to  be  of  use  is  all  I  care  to 
live  for  now."  So  they  were  both  happy,  and  Ponsonby 
had  the  usual  reward  of  virtue,  which  of  course  was 
not  publicly  mentioned. 

Through  all  this  the  Sudan  trouble  continued,  and 
this  year  General  Stewart  won,  though  with  heavy 
loss,  a  victory  over  the  Mahdi.  The  definite  intention 
was  to  abandon  the  Sudan,  but  from  one  cause  and 
another  the  evacuation  had  to  be  postponed.  Some 
people,  following  the  Queen,  blame  Gladstone  for 
even  dreaming  of  evacuation,  but  much  money  and 
many  lives  were  already  being  thrown  away  to  keep  this 
possession  for  the  Turks,  who  were  not  strong  enough 
to  keep  it  for  themselves.  When  Lord  Salisbury  came 
into  office,  and  until  1896,  he  resolutely  resisted  every 
attempt  to  make  him  change  the  policy  laid  down  by 
Gladstone  there.  For  he  knew  that  it  would  have 
been  suicidal  to  withdraw  troops  from  India,  where 
frontier  wars  were  constantly  occurring  and  a  chronic 
state  of  unrest  existed,  to  attempt  the  conquest  of  a 
country  of  such  doubtful  utility  as  the  Sudan.  When 
matters  were  ripe  for  action,  however,  he  was  prompt 
to  take  it. 

A  further  difficulty  for  the  Government  was  Ireland. 

'  There   lay    Ireland — squalid,   dismal,    sullen,   dull, 

expectant,  sunk  deep  in  hostile  intent,"  says  Lord 

Morley;  a  difficulty  with  which,  as  has  been  said,  I 

cannot  deal,   and  the  answer  to  which  has  not  yet 


326    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

received  the  royal  seal.  Parnell  had  in  1885  found 
one  key  to  the  situation  when  he  said  that  it  would 
be  for  the  Irish  people  in  England  and  for  the  Irish 
members  to  decide  at  the  next  election  whether  a  Tory 
or  a  Liberal  Ministry  should  rule  in  England. 

Gladstone  wanted  to  give  a  measure  of  local  govern- 
ment to  our  sister  isle,  but  this  was  vetoed  by  members 
from  both  sides,  and  Lord  Salisbury  determined  to 
placate  Parnell  by  dropping  Coercion,  the  two  events 
in  close  conjunction  being  something  of  a  satire  on 
party  politics.  Every  indication  went  to  show  that  the 
Liberal  Government  was  at  the  end  of  its  resources. 
The  Cabinet  was  in  a  constant  state  of  division  and 
resignation.  All  but  three  or  four  members  separately 
tendered  resignation,  and  some  more  than  once.  One 
Cabinet  was  said  to  have  sat  for  four  and  a  half  hours 
debating  whether  they  should  resign,  and  Gladstone's 
casting  vote  then  negatived  it.  At  one  time  too,  all 
the  peers  in  the  Cabinet  voted  one  way  and  all  the 
commoners  another. 

The  Irish  complicated  affairs  by  dropping  bombs 
about.  At  the  end  of  January  1885  there  was  an 
effective  explosion  at  the  House  of  Commons,  in  which 
all  the  windows  of  Westminster  Hall  were  blown  out, 
a  hole  made  at  the  top  of  the  crypt  below  the  steps 
in  the  great  hall,  the  statues  in  the  lobby  hurled 
down,  the  gallery  of  the  Commons  shattered,  the 
Speaker's  chair  ruined,  and  beams  and  glass  shed  all 
over  the  place — the  destruction  amounting  to  a  police- 
man's life  and  £70,000.  In  May  occurred  explosions 
in  St.  James's  Square  and  Scotland  Yard,  and  an 


GLADSTONE   AGAIN,  ALAS!          327 

unsuccessful  attempt  was  made  at  the  base  of  the 
Nelson  Monument ;  while  there  was  a  further  one  near 
St.  Thomas's  Tower  at  the  Tower  of  London,  in  which 
children  were  wounded. 

Every  one  knew  that  a  parliamentary  change  was 
at  hand,  and  it  came  about  nominally  through  a  vote 
on  duties  upon  spirits  and  beer,  but  not  on  wine,  in 
the  Budget  discussion,  actually  through  an  alliance 
between  the  Tories  and  the  Irish.  The  motion  which 
produced  it  was  made  by  Sir  Michael  Hicks  Beach, 
under  Lord  Salisbury's  direction,  though  Gladstone 
warned  them  that  if  it  were  carried  it  would  mean  the 
resignation  of  the  Government. 

This  was  in  June,  and  ended  what  was  one  of  the 
most  anxious  half  years  experienced  in  Parliament. 

It  was  in  this  1880-1885  Ministry  that  George 
Glyn  (second  Lord  Wolverton)  had  a  place.  Of  him 
it  was  said  that  he  had  a  canine  fidelity  to  Gladstone, 
so  that  he  would  at  critical  moments  be  anxiously 
watched,  his  face  being  a  clue  to  what  was  happening. 
After  one  division  some  one  said  cheerfully,  "  Oh, 
it's  all  right,  George  Glyn  has  gone  up  to  Gladstone 
wagging  his  tail."  Glyn  died  in  1887,  and  the  rumour 
went  that  he  had  left  Gladstone  £100,000,  but  the 
rumour  was  without  justification,  for  Gladstone  did  not 
benefit  at  all  under  his  friend's  will. 

Victoria  had  just  attained  her  sixty-eighth  birthday. 
She  was  getting  old  and  could  not  alter  ideas  which 
had  guided  her  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century.  She 
had  followed  her  own  sweet  will  all  through,  and 
intended  still  to  do  so,  and  probably  never  had  she 


been  so  much  away  from  the  centre  of  affairs  as  she 
was  this  year. 

Let  us  follow  her  movements.  At  Christmas  she 
was  at  Osborne,  and  had  not  left  when  the  news 
arrived  in  February  1885  of  the  fall  of  Khartoum. 
Her  feelings  were  then  too  bitter  for  her  to  contemplate 
Windsor,  and  she  stayed  on,  making  illness  the  excuse. 
When  she  felt  anything  keenly  her  nerves  and  general 
health  would  become  affected,  and  the  short  journey 
across  the  Solent,  though  at  a  respectably  reduced 
speed,  tried  her  always  after  the  tragic  Mistletoe 
affair. 

On  March  18  she  was  in  London,  holding  a  Draw- 
ing-room, the  first  held  by  her  since  the  early  part  of 
1883;  early  in  April  she  went  to  Aix-les-Bains  and 
Darmstadt  for  a  month,  leaving  urgent  instructions 
with  her  Prime  Minister  that  she  should  be  constantly 
informed  by  telegraph  of  all  important  proceedings, 
and  especially  in  reference  to  Egypt  and  the  Sudan. 
This  considerably  added  to  the  labours  of  men  who 
were  doing  their  best  to  govern  her  kingdom,  and 
retarded  events  through  loss  of  time  in  getting  her 
replies. 

In  May  she  returned  and  held  two  more  Drawing- 
rooms,  and  on  the  2ist  of  that  month,  when  parlia- 
mentary affairs  were  in  danger  every  day  of  collaps- 
ing, she  started  for  Balmoral.  An  urgent  request  for 
a  short  delay,  if  only  for  a  day  or  two,  was  refused, 
and  before  she  had  been  many  hours  gone  a  special 
messenger  had  to  follow  her.  She  passed  through 
England  as  usual  in  strict  seclusion,  the  station  plat- 


GLADSTONE   AGAIN,  ALAS!          329 

forms  being  kept  empty  while  her  train  ran  through. 
At  Perth  a  crowd  was  allowed  to  approach.  It  was 
the  usual  thing,  and  a  very  small  thing,  but  it  made 
people  angry.  At  Balmoral,  after  paying  an  early 
visit  to  John  Brown's  grave,  she  lived  her  usual  out- 
door, restful  life. 

The  defeat  of  the  Government  came  on  June  8, 
1885,  the  news  being  received  by  her  the  next  morn- 
ing. There  are  various  accounts  as  to  how  her 
Majesty  took  it.  Sir  Sidney  Lee  says  that  it  was  with 
"  incalculable  elation."  On  the  other  hand,  she  was 
considerably  annoyed  that  it  should  have  happened 
while  she  was  at  Balmoral,  for  she  did  not  like  any 
mental  disturbance  when  on  a  holiday;  therefore  she 
made  no  effort  to  meet  the  situation,  but  carried  out 
her  plan  of  taking  a  long  drive  to  Braemar,  Glen 
Clunie  and  other  places,  returning  to  the  castle  late 
in  the  evening,  expecting  to  hear  that  Gladstone  had 
telegraphed  an  intention  of  being  with  her  the  next 
day.  He,  then  seventy-six  and  feeling  that  his  work 
was  done,  had  decided  against  such  a  journey.  The 
Queen  was  obliged  to  write  to  him  on  the  loth,  when 
she  declared  her  surprise  that  he  should  have  made 
his  defeat  a  vital  question,  and  asked  whether  his 
Cabinet  would  not  go  on  if  Lord  Salisbury  refused 
to  form  a  Government,  which  did  not  exactly  look  like 
"  incalculable  elation."  She  did  not  want  Gladstone, 
and  she  did  want  Salisbury,  but  it  seemed  as  though 
she  wanted  least  of  all  to  let  a  matter  of  national 
importance  interfere  with  her  holiday.  Such  an  atti- 
tude could  not  escape  comment,  and  there  were  many 


330    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

public  protests  against  her  causing  a  ministerial  crisis 
to  last  for  weeks,  when  a  few  hours  ought  to  have 
settled  it.  For  one  who  protested  so  much  that  she 
was  always  thinking  of  and  working  for  the  good  of 
her  kingdom  it  was  remarkable. 

She  was,  however,  extremely  angry  that  Gladstone 
had  not  at  once  gone  to  her,  and  plainly  told  him  so; 
showing  little  consideration  or  mercy  for  an  old  man 
who  had  for  four  months  been  working  at  high  tension. 
He  replied  in  effect  that  he  was  near  the  end  of  his 
life,  that  his  ideas  were  probably  coloured  by  the  short- 
ness of  the  future  left  him,  and  that  he  thought  Lord 
Hartington,  a  younger  man,  "  would  be  more  useful  in 
conversation  with  her  Majesty."  So  Hartington  pre- 
pared to  go  to  Balmoral,  but  the  Queen  countermanded 
this,  accepted  the  resignations,  and  summoned  Lord 
Salisbury  to  the  Highlands. 

Now  that  Lord  Salisbury  was  face  to  face  with  the 
situation  he,  as  Disraeli,  did  not  like  it;  he  would 
have  to  depend  upon  coalition  with  the  Irish,  and 
however  welcome  they  were  in  defeating  the  Govern- 
ment they  might  be  dangerous  as  coadjutors,  so  he 
recommended  that  Gladstone  should  be  invited  to  re- 
consider his  decision.  This  the  latter  refused  to  do. 
Lord  Salisbury  had  led  the  great  quarrel  over  reform 
between  the  Lords  and  the  Commons;  under  his 
opposition  had  been  engineered  a  most  determined 
system  of  obstruction,  and  he  had  done  his  utmost  to 
defeat  the  Government  on  its  Budget.  "  If  an  Opposi- 
tion defeat  a  Government,  they  must  be  prepared  to 
accept  responsibility  for  their  action,"  said  Gladstone 


GLADSTONE   AGAIN,  ALAS!          331 

to  the  Queen.  Then  Salisbury  demanded  promises 
of  support  as  to  finance,  time  and  other  matters,  and 
Gladstone  again  refused — it  was  on  finance  that  Salis- 
bury had  eagerly  overthrown  him ! 

The  interregnum  continued,  for  though  Gladstone 
told  the  Queen  that  there  would  be  no  attempt  to 
embarrass  the  new  ministers,  Salisbury  was  still  afraid 
of  taking  office,  and  it  is  not  surprising,  as,  Irish  uncer- 
tainties aside,  he  would  have  a  majority  against  him, 
and  also  as  Irish  affairs  were  causing  acute  difficulties 
in  his  own  party.  '  The  Queen  was  most  gracious  and 
I  thought  most  reasonable,"  said  Gladstone,  after  an 
interview  on  June  18,  her  Majesty  having  returned  to 
Windsor  the  day  before.  On  the  2oth  Ponsonby  was 
with  Gladstone  again,  on  the  22nd  he  paid  him  no  less 
than  six  visits;  on  the  23rd  the  Queen  impressed  upon 
Salisbury  that  he  might  reasonably  accept  Gladstone's 
assurances,  and  urged  her  earnest  desire  to  bring  the 
crisis  to  an  end.  So  after  sixteen  days  in  the  doldrums 
the  ship  of  State  was  again  in  motion  under  what  came 
to  be  known  as  the  Stop-Gap  Government,  for  a 
dissolution  was  fixed  for  November. 

All  being  ended,  the  Queen  wrote  a  perfectly  charm- 
ing letter  to  Gladstone,  again  offering  him  a  peerage. 
"  She  wishes  to  offer  him  an  earldom,  as  a  mark  of  her 
recognition  of  his  long  and  distinguished  services,  and 
she  believes  and  thinks  he  would  thereby  be  enabled 
still  to  render  great  service  to  his  sovereign  and 
country." 

Gladstone  said  that  the  letter  moved  and  almost 
upset  him.  "  It  must  have  cost  her  much  to  write,  and 


332    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

it  is  really  a  pearl  of  great  price."  As  every  one  knows 
he  did  not  accept  the  proffered  honour  which  would 
have  crippled  his  work. 

The  Queen  now  turned  her  thoughts  to  Osborne, 
going  there  after  the  settlement,  and  being  engrossed 
in  Princess  Beatrice's  wedding.  She  came  thence  to 
Windsor  in  August  to  entertain  Duke  Alexander  and 
his  wife  Princess  Battenberg.  On  the  24th  of  that 
month  she  started  for  Balmoral,  and  remained  there 
until  November  17,  and  a  month  later  went  again 
to  Osborne. 

Now  this  is  the  amount  of  time  spent  by  the  English 
Queen  in  her  castle  twenty  miles  from  London : 
March  and  a  few  days  of  April,  two  weeks  in  May, 
two  weeks  in  June,  two  weeks  in  August,  and  one 
month  near  the  end  of  the  year,  between  three  and 
four  months  altogether,  of  which  about  four  days  had 
been  spent  in  Buckingham  Palace.  The  fact  was  that 
she  still  hated  the  essential  part  of  her  life  as  queen 
as  much  as  she  loathed  Windsor,  and  this  autumn, 
though  she  only  returned  there  under  great  pressure 
on  November  17,  her  spirits  fell  instantly,  so  that  by 
the  beginning  of  December  she  was  reported  to  be 
deeply  depressed — a  part  of  which  depression  may 
have  been  caused  by  the  election  results.  She  had 
not  found  Lord  Salisbury  so  docile  to  her  whims  as 
had  been  Lord  Beaconsfield,  for  he,  like  Gladstone, 
attached  more  importance  to  her  position  as  head  of 
the  State  than  did  her  favourite  minister. 

The  elections  were  begun  on  November  23rd,  and 
Salisbury  appointed  a  Council  meeting  for  the  i8th. 


GLADSTONE   AGAIN,  ALAS!          333 

The  Queen,  however,  said  that  she  did  not  intend  to 
return  south  before  that  date,  and  if  a  Privy  Council 
was  necessary,  then  it  would  have  to  be  held  at 
Balmoral.  Salisbury,  however,  was  firm;  the  i8th  was 
the  very  last  day  on  which  the  Council  could  be  held 
before  the  elections,  and  his  representations  were 
strong  enough  to  make  Victoria  give  up  a  few  days  of 
her  holiday,  and  save  a  large  body  of  her  loyal  helpers 
from  the  wearisome  journey  to  and  from  Scotland. 

The  election  was  virtually  fought  on  the  Irish  ques- 
tion. Parnell  demanded  some  form  of  Home  Rule, 
Salisbury  declared  definitely  for  the  reform  if  not  the 
repeal  of  the  Coercion  Act.  Gladstone,  who  foresaw 
that  Ireland  would  be  the  essential  question  in  the 
new  Parliament,  offended  Parnell  by  refusing  to 
formulate  any  scheme;  while  Hartington  and  Cham- 
berlain definitely  declared  against  any  Irish  plan  at 
all.  Parnell  decided  to  throw  his  weight  on  the  side 
of  Salisbury,  with  results  which  were  embarrassing  to 
every  one.  The  Liberals  stood  at  333,  the  Conserva- 
tives at  251,  and  the  Parnellites  at  86  on  the  side  of 
the  Conservatives,  so  that  the  latter  could  count  a 
majority  of  four  in  a  full  house.  But  it  meant  Glad- 
stone being  called  once  again  to  power.  No  wonder 
Victoria  was  depressed  in  spirits  in  December ! 

Things  had  not  gone  well  with  her  this  year,  but 
in  more  than  one  respect  the  reason  lay  with  herself. 
She  was  far  too  careful  with  her  money  in  England; 
she  spent  nothing  on  dress,  on  hospitality  or  on  State 
functions,  and  on  the  other  hand  there  were  constantly 
little  bills  put  before  the  parliamentary  finance  com- 


334    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

mittee  for  payment.  Thus  when  our  present  king  was 
given  the  Garter  in  March,  £548  was  demanded  to 
pay  the  expense,  and  there  was  the  same  for  Prince 
Henry,  then  £360  was  asked  for  steamboats  to  carry 
royalties  between  Dover  and  Calais ;  her  steam  yacht, 
Victoria  and  Albert,  which  she  used  scarcely  four  times 
a  year,  was  repaired  and  decorated  at  a  public  cost  of 
,£50,000,  and  as  she  had  four  or  five  such  yachts  people 
began  to  make  inquiries  into  the  annual  cost  of  these, 
and  found  it  to  be,  including  the  pay  of  officers  and 
sailors,  very  large.  In  June  there  was  another  foolish 
little  matter  which  provoked  comment  and  amusement. 
Some  ardent  Egyptian  admirer  made  Victoria  a 
present  of  a  donkey  for  the  little  carriage  which  she 
used  in  the  grounds  of  her  residences.  It  was  to  be 
sent  from  Suez,  so  a  transport  waited  there  with  steam 
up  for  days,  until  the  deliberate  animal  eventually 
appeared,  the  cost  of  the  waiting  being  about  ,£150 
per  day. 

A  small  matter  concerned  with  the  Civil  List  was 
also  revived,  showing  that  four  or  five  people  who 
had  helped  to  educate  the  Queen,  and  who  were  pen- 
sioned in  1840,  were  still  receiving  £100  a  year  each; 
one  had  taught  her  drawing,  another  dancing,  others 
music,  German  and  Italian.  Two  years  later  the 
Marquis  de  Foulon  died,  thus  releasing  one  hundred 
pounds.  One  feels  some  shame  that  these  small  sums 
were  the  subject  of  public  comment,  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  had  her  Majesty  shown  generosity  with  her  own 
money  as  well  as  that  of  the  nation,  half  these  grumbles 
would  never  have  been  uttered. 


GLADSTONE   AGAIN,  ALAS!          335 

In  the  autumn  of  1885  a  rumour  spread  that  Victoria 
had  invested  a  million  pounds  in  ground  rents  in  the 
City,  which  rumour  Ponsonby  denied  by  asserting  that 
the  Queen  had  not  such  a  sum  to  invest.  Upon  which 
busybodies  declared  that  though  she  might  not  have 
got  it  then  she  had  had  it,  and  published  proofs  of 
property  bought,  one  cited  being  St.  Mary  Chambers 
in  St.  Mary  Axe,  for  which  £46,250,  that  is  twenty-five 
years'  purchase,  had  been  paid,  the  deal  having  been 
completed  on  June  6,  1878,  in  her  Majesty's  name 
by  cheques  on  Coutts's  Bank.  Other  examples  fol- 
lowed, and  though  no  one  could  prove  the  existence 
of  such  a  sum  as  one  million,  it  was  everywhere 
believed. 

Indeed  it  was  a  season  of  complaint,  and  the  society 
papers  got  warm  over  the  paucity  of  Drawing-rooms, 
State  balls  and  concerts  held  by  the  Queen.  It  was  a 
fair  grumble,  for  when  she  did  once  or  twice  in  the 
year  summon  visitors  to  her  palace,  those  ladies  who 
had  been  weeping  because  they  were  not  invited  had 
occasion  to  weep  because  they  were;  for  the  oppor- 
tunities being  so  few  the  Drawing-rooms  were  crowded 
as  in  the  very  worst  days  of  palace  mismanagement. 
AD  the  archaic  customs  were  also  adhered  to,  the 
carriages  not  being  allowed  to  stand  at  the  door  long 
enough  for  the  owners  to  reach  them,  and  if  they  were 
not  actually  on  the  spot  these  poor  tired  women  would 
see  their  vehicle  roll  away  to  complete  the  whole  round 
again,  while  they  might  have  to  stand  an  hour  or  more, 
faint  with  thirst  and  fatigue.  Through  the  papers 
they  implored  that  at  least  a  cup  of  tea  should  be 


336    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

offered  them  by  their  royal  hostess,  but  the  petition 
was  in  vain. 

To  this  recrudescence  of  complainings  the  Queen 
turned  her  usual  indifferent  ear,  and  invoked  the  usual 
exasperation  of  her  people.  Had  she  been  less  self- 
absorbed  and  less  obstinate,  she  could  have  swept  the 
whole  thing  away  as  a  cobweb  is  swept  down,  but  she 
refused ;  she  must  adhere  to  the  line  she  had  laid  down 
for  herself.  In  actual  fact  she  did  more  than  that, 
she  bent  the  line  inwards,  as  it  were,  retreating  with 
it,  and  thus  keeping  her  people  at  a  greater  distance. 
She  could  be  kindhearted  to  individuals,  death  could 
always  bring  tears  to  her  eyes  and  a  beautiful  letter 
of  sympathy  from  her  pen  to  a  mourner,  but  her  lack 
of  imagination  left  her  cold  as  stone  to  the  requests  of 
a  community. 

In  the  case  of  soldiers  this  indifference  warmed  into 
thoughtfulness,  and  an  anecdote  is  told  of  a  visit  she 
made  to  Netley  Hospital  in  1883,  when  she  observed 
to  the  authority  near  her  that  she  should  like  to  see 
more  armchairs  in  the  wards. 

"Only  one  armchair  to  a  ward  is  allowed  by  the 
regulation,  your  Majesty,"  was  the  reply. 

"I  was  not  speaking  of  regulations,  but  of  arm- 
chairs," was  the  quick  retort. 

In  some  vague  way  Victoria  associated  Gladstone 
with  these  ebullitions  of  public  criticism,  for  these 
discomforts  seemed  to  happen  under  his  rule;  and 
though  Salisbury  was  actually  in  power  when  this 
latest  outburst  occurred,  there  was  a  Liberal  majority 
in  the  House.  Thus  she  was  keenly  troubled  over  the 


GLADSTONE   AGAIN,  ALAS!          837 

1885  elections,  and  went  down  to  Osborne,  after  the 
mourning  rituals  of  December  14,  with  a  heavy  heart; 
the  more  so  that  Gladstone  had  outlined  his  Home 
Rule  policy  to  her  early  in  the  month,  and  she  felt 
that  another  political  fight  was  imminent,  and  one  in 
which  she  saw  no  saving  grace  at  all  on  the  Home 
Rule  side. 

I  remember  the  discussions  against  the  royal  family 
of  that  period,  the  popular  and  vehement  talk,  the 
speeches  at  street  corners  and  the  wild  bets  made  that 
if  the  then  Prince  of  Wales  was  ever  allowed  to 
become  king,  his  son  never  should  be.  This  was 
generally  flavoured  with  stories  of  the  wonderful 
wealth  which  the  Queen  had  saved  from  the  taxes 
imposed  upon  the  people,  and  the  vast  sums  that  she 
had  spent  over  German  princes  both  in  England  and 
on  the  Continent.  There  were  also  other  stories  which 
had  leaked  through  some  chink  in  the  iron  wall  of 
reserve  which  the  Prince  Consort  had  built  round  the 
domestic  life  of  the  palace,  stories  of  the  Queen's 
arbitrariness,  of  her  excessive  demands  upon  her 
ladies,  the  long  hours  of  standing  in  her  presence  so 
that  occasionally  one  fainted  at  her  post,  of  capricious 
dislikes  and  ladies  being  suddenly  dismissed  simply 
because  she  had  wearied  of  them,  or  they  had  proved 
physically  unequal  to  the  labour  demanded.  Thirty 
years  ago  these  things  were  said,  and  the  writer  of  the 
article  in  The  Quarterly  Review  of  1901  substantiates 
some  of  them. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  Victoria  refused  to  under- 
stand that  her  own  attitude  under  a  Liberal  Govern- 


338    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

ment  was  the  real  cause  of  the  disaffection,  that  she 
shut  herself  up  more  rigidly  then  than  when  the 
Conservatives  were  in  power  and  showed  far  less 
consideration  all  round.  Thus,  not  having  opened  a 
Liberal  session  for  twenty  years,  she  returned  in  1886 
from  Osborne  before  January  21,  to  go  to  the  House 
of  Lords  in  semi-state  to  support  Salisbury. 

On  his  defeat  Salisbury,  who  had  all  the  grit  of 
his  race,  showed  no  intention  of  refusing  to  meet 
Parliament,  as  Disraeli  had  done  ten  years  earlier, 
and  he  occupied  the  Ministerial  bench  when  the  House 
opened,  but  five  days  later  he  was  outvoted,  and  the 
parties  changed  sides.  Gladstone  had  prepared  a 
scheme  for  municipal  Home  Rule  in  Ireland  without 
prejudice  to  Imperial  Unity  and  interests,  and  on 
March  15,  1886,  there  came  into  being  the  notable  new 
party,  the  Liberal-Unionists,  under  Joseph  Chamber- 
lain, the  ultra- Radical.  Thus  there  were  four  parties 
in  the  House.  Chamberlain  and  his  group,  Harting- 
ton,  the  Whig,  and  his  followers,  Salisbury  and  the 
Tories  and  Gladstone  and  the  Liberals.  The  first 
three  met  to  discuss  the  situation  and  lay  their  plans, 
and  on  June  7  the  first  Home  Rule  Bill  was  rejected. 

After  winding  up  the  debate  and  while  the  House 
was  cleared  for  division,  Gladstone  sat  on  the  Treasury 
bench  and  with  calm  face  began  writing  his  letter  on 
his  knees  to  the  Queen.  This  daily  letter  at  the  end 
of  a  long  and  exciting  debate  must  always  have  been 
something  of  a  tax  upon  a  weary  and  harassed 
minister. 

It  was  a  curious  characteristic  of  Victoria  that,  when 


GLADSTONE   AGAIN,  ALAS!          339 

it  suited  her,  she  played  with  the  conventions  of 
parliamentary  custom.  Home  Rule  was  dead  and  out 
of  the  way.  There  had  recently  been  an  election,  and 
though  her  minister  was  repugnant  to  her,  he  could 
now  do  little  harm,  so  she  decided  that  another  election 
was  unnecessary.  It  was,  she  said,  a  needless  disturb- 
ance of  her  own  and  the  country's  peace.  Gladstone, 
however,  saw  in  resignation  rather  than  dissolution 
simply  an  abandonment  of  the  Irish  cause,  a  showing 
of  the  white  feather,  as  he  told  the  Queen,  and  he 
dissolved  without  delay. 

During  the  preceding  weeks  Victoria  had  suffered 
from  every  emotion  of  disgust  and  nervous  tension. 
To  give  the  Irish  any  voice  in  their  own  affairs,  to  allow 
them  any  kind  of  local  government  meant  to  her,  as 
it  has  done  to  a  large  number  of  her  subjects  who  have 
never  studied  the  suggestions  put  forth,  a  disruption 
of  her  empire,  a  breaking  of  her  coronation  oath,  a 
handing  of  Ireland  over  to  America,  and  a  number  of 
other  absurd  and  impossible  calamities.  Much  the 
same  things  were  said  about  self-government  for  South 
Africa,  and  had  the  Government  then  in  power  list- 
ened, the  Boers  would,  as  one  nation,  in  this  year  of 
1915,  have  joined  our  German  foes,  and  Africa  would 
have  been  the  scene  of  a  terrible  war. 

All  along  Victoria  had  definitely  expounded  her 
views  about  her  Prime  Minister  and  his  Bill  to  every 
one  with  whom  she  came  in  contact,  and  she  con- 
sciously headed  the  Opposition,  so  the  defeat  brought 
her  great  joy,  and  when  the  new  Parliament  showed 
a  Unionist  majority  of  no  and  she  had  to  take  leave 


340    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

of  Gladstone  she  was  beaming.  He  had  spent  fifty- 
five  years  in  political  life,  and  twenty-five  years  in 
office,  and  her  sole  remark  personal  to  him  at  the  leave- 
taking  was  that  he  would  require  some  rest.  The 
greater  part  of  the  conversation  was  devoted  to  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  means  to  be  employed  to  secure  grants, 
dowries  and  pensions  for  the  third  generation  of  her 
family.  She  was  glad  to  be  rid  of  him,  but  she  was 
quick  to  seize  the  opportunity  of  enlisting  his  help  for 
her  personal  affairs. 

"  I  remember,"  said  Gladstone,  "  that  on  a  closing 
audience  in  1874  she  said  she  felt  sure  I  might  be 
reckoned  upon  to  support  the  Throne.  She  did  not 
say  anything  of  the  sort  to-day.  Her  mind  and 
opinions  have  since  that  day  been  seriously  warped, 
and  I  respect  her  for  the  scrupulous  avoidance  of  any- 
thing which  could  have  seemed  to  indicate  a  desire  on 
her  part  to  claim  anything  in  common  with  me." 

Yet  she  was  ready  to  grasp  at  this  opportunity  of 
ensuring  his  future  support ! 

During  the  election  Gladstone  took  the  unusual 
course  of  speaking  in  many  large  centres,  Glasgow, 
Edinburgh,  Manchester  and  others,  and  the  Queen 
remonstrated  with  him  in  what  Lord  Morley  called  "  a 
gracious  and  frank  letter  from  Balmoral."  To  which 
he  replied,  "  He  must  state  frankly  what  it  is  that  has 
induced  him  thus  to  yield  (to  importunity  for  speeches). 
It  is  that,  since  the  death  of  Lord  Beaconsfield,  the 
Leaders  of  the  Opposition  have  established  a  rule  of 
what  may  be  called  popular  agitation,  by  addressing 
public  meetings  from  time  to  time  at  places  with  which 


GLADSTONE   AGAIN,  ALAS!          341 

they  were  not  connected.  This  method  was  peculiarly 
marked  in  the  case  of  Lord  Salisbury  as  a  peer,  and 
this  change  on  the  part  of  the  Leaders  of  the  Opposi- 
tion has  induced  Mr.  Gladstone  to  deviate  on  this 
critical  occasion  from  the  rule  which  he  had  generally 
or  universally  observed  in  former  years.  .  .  .  Your 
Majesty  will  be  the  first  to  perceive  that,  even  if  it 
had  been  possible  for  him  to  decline  this  great  con- 
test, it  was  not  possible  for  him,  having  entered  upon 
it,  to  conduct  it  in  a  half-hearted  manner,  or  to  omit 
the  use  of  any  means  requisite  in  order  to  place  (what 
he  thinks)  the  true  issue  before  the  country." 

So  was  legalized,  as  it  were,  the  custom  of  ministers 
and  their  opponents  speaking  all  over  the  country. 


CHAPTER   XXI 

THE    QUEEN    ALIVE    ONCE    MORE 

"  She  did  not  struggle  knowingly  against  principles ;  she  did 
not  conceive  of  them.  She  struggled  solely  against  men  who 
displeased  her.  .  .  .  Queen,  in  good  faith  she  defended  royalty. 
It  was  her  r61e.  To  reproach  Victoria  because,  being  on  the 
throne,  she  had  not  enough  intelligence  and  foresight  to  put 
the  interest  and  future  good  of  the  nation  before  what  she 
considered  as  the  interest  and  immediate  good  of  her  country, 
of  her  function,  of  her  person,  would  be  to  reproach  her  for  not 
having  combined  heroism  and  genius  in  her  soul." — Abel 
Che-valley:  'La  Reine  Victoria.' 

"The  hurrahs  were  yet  ascending  from  our  jubilating  lips."- 
De  Quincey :  'Autobiographical  Sketches.' 

THERE  had  already  been  in  the  winter  of  1885  talk 
of  the  rejoicings  which  it  was  hoped  would  be  made 
on  the  attainment  of  the  fiftieth  year  of  Victoria's 
reign,  and  the  hint  of  such  a  thing  caused  her  pleasure, 
even  though  it  occurred  when  Lord  Salisbury  was 
being  turned  out  of  power,  and  swelled  into  popular 
favour  under  Gladstone.  There  was  about  it  a  sugges- 
tion of  peace  and  good  feeling  which  she  hailed  gladly, 
and  her  sensible  suggestion  that  it  should  be  held  on 
the  completion  of  the  fiftieth  year  was  accepted  by  all 
as  a  proof  of  her  strength  and  confidence. 

She  was,  indeed,  in  better  health,  both  of  body  and 
mind;  the  poisonous  depression  and  self-absorption 
which  had  held  her  for  twenty-five  years  and  rendered 

342 


THE  QUEEN  ALIVE  ONCE  MORE      343 

her  a  nonentity  in  her  own  capital  was  at  last  being 
effectively  conquered,  and  for  the  first  time  she  seemed 
really  to  become  aware  that  any  unpopularity  from 
which  she  had  suffered  had  some  relation  to  her  own 
attitude.  Thus  1886  saw  the  beginning  of  a  revolu- 
tion in  her  life,  brought  about  in  the  first  place  by  a 
desire  to  lead  the  fight  against  a  measure  which  she 
opposed  with  every  sentiment  of  her  being. 

The  keenness  of  her  feeling  against  Home  Rule 
led  her  to  look  for  methods  of  impressing  her  ideas 
upon  the  people,  and  she  could  think  only  of  that 
"personal  influence"  which  she  had  so  long  scorned. 
In  realizing  this  she  also  began  to  see  that  she  had 
deliberately  thrown  aside  many  golden  opportunities. 
So  she  armed  herself  for  the  conflict,  and  the  fight 
was  begun  by  her  appearance  at  the  opening  of  Par- 
liament in  January  1886,  and  though  five  days  later 
Gladstone  succeeded  to  the  Chair  of  State,  she  con- 
stantly appeared  in  public  during  the  session.  In 
February  she  went  to  a  great  concert  at  the  Albert 
Hall;  in  March  she  laid  the  foundation-stone  of  the 
Medical  Examination  Hall  on  the  Embankment, 
actually  replying  herself  to  the  address  presented  to 
her.  When,  in  1882,  she  had  opened  the  Royal  Courts 
of  Justice,  the  programme  included  a  short  opening 
speech  by  herself;  but  as  the  moment  approached 
she  began  to  look  very  unhappy,  and,  beckoning  Sir 
William  Harcourt,  talked  earnestly  to  him — every  one 
thinking  that  he  was  getting  a  scolding.  The  fact 
was  that  she  was  suddenly  stricken  with  deadly 
nervousness,  and  was  telling  him  that  she  could  not 


344    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

utter  the  briefest  sentence,  and  commanding  him  to 
do  it  for  her.  In  May  she  opened  the  great  Colonial 
and  Indian  Exhibition  (the  "  Colindries ")  at  South 
Kensington,  the  inception  of  which  was  due  to  the 
Prince  of  Wales.  She  did  things  now,  not  as  a 
prisoner  dragged  to  the  task,  but  with  a  will;  and  in 
this  instance  decided  upon  a  magnificent  state  cere- 
monial, which  awoke  enthusiasm  in  the  souls  of  those 
who  love  a  show.  From  Paddington  to  South  Ken- 
sington she  drove  through  huzzaing  crowds.  At  the 
exhibition  she  was  received  with  a  blare  of  trumpets 
and  the  National  Anthem,  by  a  host  of  people  brilliant 
in  garb  and  many  of  them  brilliant  in  reputation.  Her 
throne  in  the  amphitheatre  was  of  hammered  gold 
(once  in  the  possession  of  the  East  India  Company; 
one  wonders  how  they  got  it !),  and  the  canopy  was 
of  Indian  cloth-of-gold,  its  hangings  looped  with  gold 
chains  and  pendants  of  Delhi  work. 

It  was  all  very  gorgeous  and  inspiriting,  and  the 
Queen  once  more  did  what  for  twenty-five  years  she 
had  refused  to  do  except  over  a  tomb  or  a  statue  : 
she  gave  voice  to  her  own  reply  to  the  address.  She 
had  at  last  found  her  feet,  and  seemed  determined 
henceforth  to  walk  on  them,  and  not  to  be  for  ever 
begging  her  people  to  carry  her. 

Later  she  held  a  review  at  Aldershot  to  do  honour 
to  her  Indian  and  Colonial  visitors,  asked  them  to 
lunch  at  Windsor,  and  gave  a  party  there  to  the 
overseas  workers  at  the  exhibition.  But  she  forgot 
that  all  this  goodwill  had  been  made  possible  by 
the  policy  of  past  Governments  who  recognized  the 


THE  QUEEN  ALIVE  ONCE  MORE      345 

autonomous  principle  of  Colonial  government,  the 
very  principle  which,  when  applied  to  Ireland,  she 
thought  would  be  disruptive  of  her  empire. 

A  week  after  the  opening  of  the  exhibition  she 
paid  a  long-promised  and  long-delayed  visit  to  Liver- 
pool. She  stayed  there  three  days  and  two  nights, 
and  though  it  rained  intolerably  all  through  one  of 
those  days  she  stuck  to  the  programme,  and  drove  in 
an  open  carriage  through  the  streets.  Well  might  she 
have  a  wonderful  and  glorious  welcome !  Returning 
thence  to  Windsor,  she  then  took  her  usual  holiday 
at  Balmoral,  and  at  the  end  of  June  was  ready  to 
open  the  Royal  Holloway  College  at  Egham.  Think 
of  it,  a  college  for  women !  In  addition  to  all  these 
functions  she  held  Drawing-rooms  and  State  concerts 
in  London,  and  ordered  various  other  levees,  balls 
and  assemblies  to  take  place.  The  whole  royal  family 
were  allowed  to  wake  up  at  last,  the  various  princes 
and  princesses  being  kept  busy  with  the  public  events 
which  have  since  become  recognized  as  part  of  their 
duties;  giving  their  blessings  to  new  bridges,  schools 
and  institutions,  and  to  various  celebrations. 

In  August  the  Queen  went  from  Osborne  to  Edin- 
burgh, staying  at  Holyrood  Palace,  and  visiting  the 
Edinburgh  International  Exhibition,  where  compli- 
mentary addresses  passed  between  the  Queen  and  the 
Lords  Provost  of  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow.  From 
Holyrood  to  Balmoral  she  went,  and  thence  in  the 
first  week  of  November  to  Windsor,  where,  on  the 
23rd  of  the  same  month,  Princess  Beatrice  bore  a  son. 
This  last  occurrence  necessitated  Christmas  being 


346    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

spent  at  Windsor — the  second  time  since  her  widow- 
hood. It  was  kept  cheerfully,  too,  with  all  the 
usual  Christmas  accessories,  and  "a  jolly  tuck-in" 
for  the  Bluecoat  School  boys,  though,  for  some  reason, 
the  aids  to  warmth,  both  internal  and  external,  for  the 
poor  were  not  distributed  until  the  New  Year.  On 
the  last  day  of  the  month  her  Majesty  flitted  to 
Osborne,  and  stayed  there  well  over  the  opening  of 
Parliament. 

By  six  months'  activity  Victoria  had  almost  slain 
the  dragons  of  discontent  and  revolt.  In  1885  it  was 
popularly  reported  that  Albert  Edward,  Prince  of 
Wales,  did  not  hope  to  be  king,  which  was  probably 
true;  one  remembers  that  little  sentence  he  uttered  at 
the  close  of  his  life :  "  Well,  there  will  be  one  more 
king,  in  any  case."  By  the  end  of  1886,  thanks  to 
the  resuscitation  of  energy  in  the  Queen,  he  had  a 
sporting  chance.  There  were  and  are,  of  course, 
always  with  us  those  who  disapprove  of  royalty  by 
reason  rather  than  by  sentiment,  and  these,  now  that 
the  danger  of  royal  aggrandisement  of  power  under 
German  tutelage  has  disappeared,  are  tolerant  enough. 

The  Queen  and  her  eldest  son  were  never  close 
friends,  and  for  long  Victoria  had  found  so  much  to 
criticize  in  Alexandra  that  by  this  date  their  affection 
for  each  other  was  much  more  equable  when  they  were 
apart.  It  is  quite  understandable.  Queen  Victoria, 
in  spite  of  Bismarck's  spiteful  criticisms,  was  a  perfect 
and,  from  the  feminine  point  of  view,  admirable  speci- 
men of  a  German  frau.  She  considered  that  the  chief 
duties  of  a  woman  were  to  be  prolific,  to  adore  her 


KING  EDWARD  VII  AS  PRINCE  OF  WALES 


THE  QUEEN  ALIVE  ONCE  MORE      347 

husband,  to  dress  soberly,  manage  economically,  and 
to  forswear  intellect.  Alexandra  never  interfered  in 
State  matters,  nor  made  a  cult  of  intellectual  pursuits, 
but  she  had  that  which  carries  a  woman  a  long  way : 
infinite  social  charm  and  knowledge,  coupled  with  a 
self-sacrificing  patience  which  Victoria  utterly  lacked ; 
she  had  had  a  fair  number  of  children,  but  the  oppor- 
tunity for  marital  adoration  had  seldom  been  given 
her,  and  there  had  been  times  when  matters  in  the 
"  Social  Court "  were  distinctly  strained.  The  great 
fault  which  the  Queen  found  in  her,  however,  was 
that,  though  she  was  the  mother  of  adult  children, 
she  did  not  walk  in  the  way  of  the  Prince  Consort's 
precepts.  She  allowed  no  one  to  say,  "  That  you  shall 
not  wrear !  "  and  she  did  not  dress  according  to  what 
her  mother-in-law  considered  was  a  style  suitable  to 
one  who  might  have  been  a  grandmother.  She  was 
still  the  best-dressed  and  the  most  graceful  woman  at 
Court,  and  retained  an  appearance  of  youth  which  her 
own  eldest  daughter  could  not  rival. 

Another  sore  point  had  been  that — in  common  with 
the  Crown  Princess  in  Prussia — she  had,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  her  husband,  utterly  turned  her  back  upon 
the  Stockmar-Albertian  ideal  of  education  for  royal 
children.  The  Prince  of  Wales  had  always  deter- 
mined that  his  children  should  not  suffer  from  the 
nervousness  and  cramped  effect  which  his  upbringing 
had  entailed  upon  himself,  with  its  consequent  over- 
powering self-consciousness;  and  his  boys  were  sent 
to  school,  while  his  girls  led  a  natural  home  life, 
unfettered  by  a  profundity  of  mock  respect  for  their 


348    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

high-born  parents.    They  also  were  allowed  to  observe 
the  continental  rather  than  the  British  Sabbath. 

A  further  cause  of  friction  between  the  two  ladies 
was  that  the  Queen  shuddered  at  the  name  of  Glad- 
stone, while  the  Princess  most  undutifully  liked  him ; 
a  liking  in  which  the  Prince  shared,  whether  he  did 
or  did  not  always  agree  with  the  Grand  Old  Man's 
policy,  which,  however,  was  never  known.  Gladstone 
once  told  Lord  Ronald  Gower  that  no  royalty  that  he 
had  ever  known — "but  my  experience  is  limited" 
had  such  charm  and  tact  as  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

In  1883  Gladstone  had  been  one  of  a  party  with 
Tennyson  and  Browning  to  go  a  cruise  to  Denmark, 
and  had  been  made  much  of  by  the  royal  family  there ; 
a  matter  which  drew  a  sharp  reproof  from  Victoria, 
in  that  Gladstone — the  locality  of  the  cruise  being 
unpremeditated — had  not  first  received  her  permission 
to  go  near  Denmark.  On  his  side  the  statesman  was 
a  courtier  to  the  finger-tips  where  the  Princess  was 
concerned,  as,  indeed,  he  also  was  to  the  Queen  : 
"  Nothing  could  be  more  charming  than  the  deference 
he  paid  to  the  Princess,  and  the  pleasure  she  always 
showed  in  his  company." 

Gladstone  always  expressed  delight  over  his  inter- 
course with  the  Prince,  whom  he  yearly  invited  to  his 
annual  Royal  Birthday  dinner,  being  much  troubled 
over  it  in  1886  because  the  many  splits  in  Parliament 
made  him  fear  that  most  of  the  chief  men  would  refuse 
the  invitation,  and  he  would  be  shamed  before  the 
Prince  and  Albert  Victor,  who  was  to  be  his  guest  for 
the  first  time ;  however,  his  old  comrades  showed  better 


THE  QUEEN  ALIVE  ONCE  MORE      349 

sense,  and  the  dinner  was  a  success.  The  Queen  had 
an  absolute  abhorrence  of  tobacco,  a  dislike  which 
Gladstone  shared,  but  he,  knowing  what  a  victim  to 
the  nicotine  fiend  was  Albert  Edward,  always  gave  his 
Royal  Highness  the  lead  by  lighting  a  cigarette. 

Victoria  had  in  early  days  been  most  severe  with 
her  son  over  this  habit,  absolutely  forbidding  him  to 
smoke  in  any  of  the  royal  residences;  and  when  on 
one  occasion  the  youthful  prince  transgressed  he  was 
sentenced  to  remain  in  his  rooms  for  a  month,  a 
punishment  rigorously  enforced.  Such  punishments 
were  customary  in  German  royal  families,  and  are  still 
inflicted  by  the  Kaiser  on  the  slightest  excuse  upon 
one  or  other  of  his  many  relatives. 

This  prohibition  extended  to  visitors  at  the  castle, 
even  to  the  dine-and-sleep-one-night  visitors,  and 
there  are  amusing  anecdotes  of  noted  men  lying  on 
the  hearthrug  to  smoke  up  the  chimney,  or  resorting 
to  other  sly  ways  of  getting  a  luxurious  whiff.  Punch 
declared  in  1863  that  so  strictly  were  the  rules  against 
it  carried  out  that  the  very  chimneys  received  intima- 
tion from  the  Lord  Chamberlain  that  they  would  be 
expected  to  consume  their  own  smoke.  And  further 
back,  in  the  early  days  of  his  marriage,  the  Prince 
Consort  was  thus  interdicted,  it  needing  many  a 
struggle  before  his  beloved  pipe  became  regarded  as 
part  of  his  lawful  possessions. 

Before  his  marriage  Prince  Henry  of  Battenberg 
smoked  in  bed  or  in  his  bedroom ;  but  he  had  not  been 
long  a  Benedick  before  he  was  allowed  far  greater 
latitude  than  had  ever  been  extended  to  his  brother- 


350    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

in-law,  or  even  to  the  deceased  and  beloved  prince 
himself.  But  by  this  time  the  Queen  had  attained 
something  in  breadth  of  view  on  this  subject,  as  on 
many  others. 

In  1886  the  Battenberg  question  had  become  again 
acute.  Alexander  of  Bulgaria  was  continuing  his 
series  of  quarrels  with  Russia,  and  Queen  Victoria 
warmly  took  up  his  side;  the  Blue  Book  on  Bulgaria 
and  Eastern  Rumelia  recording  her  opinion  that  if 
he  succeeded  in  once  more  grasping  the  reins  of  power 
with  a  steady  hand,  and  again  stood  forth  as  the 
constitutional  head  of  a  law-abiding  state,  the  people 
of  England  would  probably  be  deeply  moved  and 
"would  scarcely  look  on  with  indifference  should  an 
attempt  be  made  from  without  to  disturb  this  state 
of  things  " :  which  was  something  like  a  hint  of  war, 
as  well  as  a  promise  which  the  people  of  England 
would  scarcely  have  honoured. 

Alexander  was  very  handsome,  and  this,  coupled 
with  his  misfortunes,  was  sufficient  to  capture  Victoria's 
heart.  At  one  time  news  concerning  him  could  not 
be  secured,  and  she  sent  repeated  anxious  messages 
to  Darmstadt,  to  which  at  last  arrived  an  answer  that 
the  hero  was  suffering  from  typhoid,  though  the  illness 
turned  out  to  be  smallpox.  He  recovered,  and  when 
he  came  to  England  in  the  early  summer  he  was,  by 
the  Queen's  orders,  received  with  royal  honours  by 
the  garrisons  and  fleet;  the  cause  of  this  being  that 
Victoria  was  seeking  to  settle  him  matrimonially,  and 
report  had  it  that  Princess  Louise  of  Wales  was  the 
chosen  lady,  also  the  widowed  Duchess  of  Albany 


THE  QUEEN  ALIVE  ONCE  MORE      351 

was  mentioned;  but  later  every  one  knew  that  it  was 
Princess  Victoria  of  Prussia,  the  Queen's  grand- 
daughter and  sister  to  the  present  kaiser. 

There  was  some  indignation  over  Prince  Louis  of 
Battenberg  at  this  time,  as  he  had  been  made  com- 
mander of  the  Dreadnought,  first  ship  of  its  species, 
over  the  heads  of  a  large  number  of  senior  officers, 
even  though  he  had  been  judged  medically  unfit.  In 
this  matter  Victoria  had  personally  intervened,  insist- 
ing upon  his  appointment,  the  reason  being  that  until 
he  had  had  a  year's  command  he  could  not  get  the 
rank  of  captain. 

In  the  same  year  Henry  was  appointed  aide-de- 
camp to  the  Queen,  a  position  which  carried  with  it  a 
colonelcy  in  the  Army  and  its  pay,  and  he  became 
colonel  of  the  Isle  of  Wight  (Princess  Beatrice's) 
battalion  of  Rifles.  It  was  popularly  asserted  that 
the  mantle  of  John  Brown  had  fallen  upon  the 
shoulders  of  this  favourite  son-in-law,  and  that  the 
fishing  and  shooting  so  long  reserved  for  the  ex- 
clusive use  of  the  servant  were  now  reserved  for  the 
prince. 

At  Osborne  the  Queen  made  a  new  departure  in 
February  1887,  by  having  the  Kendal  and  Hare  com- 
pany to  act  before  her,  and  she  was  so  pleased  that 
she  gave  a  valuable  brooch  to  Mrs.  Kendal.  Six  years 
earlier  she  had  seen  a  theatrical  performance,  the  first 
of  her  widowhood,  when  at  Abergeldie  the  Prince  and 
Princess  of  Wales  arranged  the  play  of  Burnand's 
The  Colonel.  The  Queen  also  commanded  some  of 
the  Windsor  clerics  to  journey  to  Osborne  to  preach 


352    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

before  her,  though  it  was  quite  easy  for  her  to  hear 
them  when  at  the  castle ;  and  in  January,  during  very 
cold  weather,  her  statesmen  had  to  make  the  long 
journey  to  consult  with  her. 

At  the  end  of  February  she  returned  to  Windsor 
Castle  for  about  six  weeks,  and  arranged  two  Draw- 
ing-rooms for  March,  during  which  month  she  actually 
spent  ten  days  in  London — probably  the  first  succes- 
sive ten  days  for  nearly  forty  years.  This  succeeded 
a  visit  to  Birmingham,  where  she  had  been  enthusias- 
tically received. 

The  Drawing-rooms,  though  held  at  Buckingham 
Palace,  were  crowded,  but  her  Majesty  did  not  now 
feel  equal  to  going  through  the  whole  ceremony,  and 
after  about  eighty  presentations  had  been  made 
slipped  away,  her  place  being  taken  by  the  Princess 
of  Wales.  To  lessen  the  fatigue  the  Queen  had  had 
arranged  for  her  comfort  a  high  stool,  upon  which  she 
half  sat,  half  leaned,  while  retaining  the  appearance 
of  standing.  Her  fondness  for  her  grandchildren  had 
let  her  permit  half  a  dozen  of  them,  including  Princess 
Beatrice's  baby  in  the  arms  of  a  nurse,  to  stand  by 
the  doorway,  where  the  ladies'  trains  were  unfolded 
and  spread  before  their  interested  eyes. 

The  children  were  the  delight  of  the  Queen's  life, 
and  they  loved  her  as  children  can  love  an  indulgent, 
understanding  grandmother.  What  a  pity  it  is  that 
so  many  parents  have  to  grow  old  before  they  lose 
the  red-tapism  of  parentage,  in  which  they  are  even 
more  tangled  to-day  than  they  were  in  the  Queen's 
youth,  for  babies  are  no  longer  budding  individuals, 


THE  QUEEN  ALIVE  ONCE  MORE      353 

but  puppets  in  some  one's — generally  Germanic — 
system. 

In  April  Queen  Victoria,  Princess  Beatrice  and 
Prince  Henry  went  to  Cannes  and  Aix-les-Bains  for 
a  month,  necessitating  the  passing  to  and  fro  of 
Queen's  Messengers  at  Easter  to  obtain  her  signature 
to  parliamentary  bills,  and  the  consequent  remaining 
in  town  for  three  days  of  ministers  who  might  have 
been  off  for  the  Easter  recess.  By  May  the  arrange- 
ments for  the  Jubilee  were  well  advanced,  and  though 
the  Queen  was  too  busy  to  hold  the  Drawing-rooms 
herself,  she  was  several  times  in  town.  Once  she 
went  to  inspect  the  atrocious  mauling  of  Westminster 
Abbey  which  was  in  progress,  and  followed  this  by 
attending  a  performance  by  Buffalo  Bill  at  the  Wild 
West  Show. 

She  arrived  at  the  latter  place  soon  after  five  o'clock, 
accompanied  by  the  Battenbergs,  in  a  carriage  and 
four,  with  outriders  in  scarlet;  and  other  carriages 
followed  her.  Some  of  her  friends  went  in  the 
"  Dreadnought "  coach,  which  was  driven  at  the  gallop 
round  the  arena  while  Indians  attacked  it,  and  a 
tremendous  amount  of  bogus  firing  went  on;  all  of 
which  affected  her  into  a  state  of  radiant  delight,  so 
that  at  the  close  Buffalo  Bill,  the  Indian  chief  and 
two  of  the  squaws  with  their  little  painted  papooses 
were  presented.  How  much  healthier  mentally  she 
would  have  been  had  she  oftener  enjoyed  simple 
things  like  this ;  and  also  how  much  more  exhilarating 
would  it  have  been  for  her  that  day  had  she  seen  the 
whole  gallery  of  seats  filled  with  her  happy  subjects, 

AA 


354    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

instead  of  being  empty  by  her  orders  so  that  the 
performance  might  be  private  to  herself. 

On  a  Saturday  in  May  her  Majesty  went  in  grand 
procession  to  open  the  People's  Palace  in  the  East 
End,  and  most  divergent  accounts  were  given  in  the 
papers  of  her  reception.  On  the  one  hand  it  was  said 
that  the  enthusiasm  was  intense,  on  the  other  that  she 
was  coldly,  even  sullenly,  received,  derisive  shouts 
being  heard  at  some  points.  The  cheers,  it  was  said, 
came  from  the  window-holders,  and  the  sullenness 
was  caused  by  the  fact  that  the  tradesmen  had 
petitioned  for  another  day,  as  Saturday  was  the  most 
important  day  for  their  business,  the  response  from 
the  Secretary's  office  being  that  "her  Majesty  was  not 
pleased  to  signify  any  commands  thereon." 

It  was  a  trying  journey  for  more  than  one  person, 
for  Fenianism  was  still  to  the  fore,  and  dynamite  not 
long  discarded  as  a  weapon;  and  the  East  End  was 
regarded  —  in  spite  of  the  philanthropists  —  as  the 
source  of  all  metropolitan  violence.  The  Queen  could 
not  be  sure  that  all  would  go  well,  and  Henry  of 
Battenberg  was,  justly  or  unjustly,  said  to  give  open 
evidence  of  being  in  a  blue  funk. 

There  had  been  many  Jubilee  suggestions  made. 
The  Prince  of  Wales  proposed  the  ill-fated  Imperial 
Institute,  which  gained  little  favour  from  the  first. 
Some  suggested  the  repeal  of  the  Royal  Marriage 
Act;  more  advanced  people  referred  to  an  earlier 
rumour  and  suggested  that  the  Queen  should  resign 
in  favour  of  her  son.  Others  were  bolder  still,  and 
openly  said  that  Victoria  herself  should  return  thanks 


THE  QUEEN  ALIVE  ONCE   MORE      355 

to  God  by  giving  something  to  her  country.  The 
Rev.  Arthur  Robins,  Rector  of  Holy  Trinity,  Windsor, 
and  familiarly  known  as  the  Soldiers'  Bishop,  thought 
it  would  be  a  noble  act  if  the  pestilential  spots  of 
Windsor  should  be  cleansed  and  healthy  houses  built 
for  the  poor,  for  no  place  in  England  was  so  fever- 
stricken  as  the  district  which  lay  around  the  royal 
castle.  Some  one  suggested  that  all  women  should 
contribute  and  form  a  Women's  Jubilee  Fund. 

Of  all  these  proposals  only  the  first  and  the  last 
were  carried  out,  and  the  public  languidly  subscribed 
to  both.  Baroness  Burdett  Coutts  heaped  coals  of  fire 
on  her  sovereign's  head  by  presiding  at  a  large  meet- 
ing in  London  to  start  the  Women's  Fund  idea,  for 
the  Queen  had  shown  a  very  broad  back  to  her  since 
her  marriage.  The  fund  being  well  started,  Victoria 
nearly  killed  it  by  announcing  her  intention  of  build- 
ing a  new  memorial  to  Prince  Albert  with  it !  Purses 
shut  up  with  a  snap  at  the  very  idea.  This  coming 
to  the  ears  of  her  Majesty,  as  well  as  the  want  of 
enthusiasm  about  the  Imperial  Institute,  caused  her 
much  distress.  So  nothing  further  was  said  about  the 
statue,  and  the  sum  rolled  up  to  about  £80,000,  of 
which  only  £3000  was  used  for  a  bronze  equestrian 
statue  to  the  Prince,  later  set  up  in  Windsor  Park. 
The  great  bulk  of  the  gift  the  Queen  devoted  to  found- 
ing an  institute  for  training  nurses  as  attendants  on  the 
sick  poor  in  their  homes,  and  some  of  the  ladies  nearly 
wept  because  her  Majesty  did  not  keep  a  trifle  to  buy 
herself  a  personal  ornament  in  commemoration  of  the 
glad  event. 


356    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

The  late  Arthur  W.  a  Beckett  did  his  utmost  with 
Cardinal  Manning  to  get  the  Golden  Rose  for  her 
Majesty  from  the  Pope,  but  she  was  outside  the 
Church,  and  the  end  of  it  was  that  the  Cardinal 
murmured,  with  a  smile,  to  his  interviewer,  "The 
dear  lady  has  received  a  very  beautiful  mosaic  from 
Rome.  It  would  have  been  the  Golden  Rose  had  it 
been  possible."1 

In  return  for  this  and  for  the  Pope's  courtesy  in 
sending  a  representative  to  the  Jubilee,  Victoria  sent 
for  the  Papal  Jubilee  the  following  year  a  golden  ewer 
and  basin. 

One  of  the  many  presents  sent  to  Queen  Victoria 
was  a  carriage  rug  of  feathers  gathered  from  the  sea- 
birds  of  Heligoland,  that  valuable  isle  which  with 
such  lavish  prodigality  she  later  thrust  into  the  hands 
of  her  beloved  grandson,  the  War  Lord.  This  present 
reminds  me  of  that  sent  ten  years  earlier  by  the 
Empress  of  Brazil  of  a  dress  made  of  spiders'  webs, 
with  which  the  handsomest  silk  could  not  compare 
either  in  quality  or  beauty,  and  which  was  made  from 
the  strong  threads  woven  by  a  large  species  of  South 
American  arachnid. 

The  previous  year  the  Queen  had  pleased  India  by 
attaching  two  Indian  attendants  to  her  service,  and 
now  she  added  an  Indian  gentleman,  the  Munshi 
Abdul  Karim,  as  Groom  of  the  Chamber,  with  a  special 
duty  of  teaching  her  Hindustani.  She  was  doing  her 
best  to  bind  the  empire  safely  round  her  throne;  but 
what  might  she  not  have  done  had  she  started  on  this 
1  Arthur  W.  b.  Beckett :  The  a  Becketts  of  '  Punch. ' 


THE  QUEEN  ALIVE  ONCE  MORE      357 

course  twenty-five  years  earlier?  And,  by  the  way, 
through  all  these  distractions  and  engagements  where 
were  the  noted  dispatch  boxes  which  were  supposed 
daily  to  take  up  the  whole  of  her  time?  It  must  be 
hoped  that  with  her  growing  sense  of  fitness  she  had 
banished  all  but  the  most  important.  This  suggests 
the  further  idea  of  how  much  easier  and  more  pleasant 
a  time  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury  had  in  office  than  had 
ever  the  G.O.M.,  whose  Government  she  harassed 
daily,  and  sometimes  hourly,  over  matters  small  and 
great.  '  The  nation  at  large  knew  nothing  of  diffi- 
culties at  Windsor,"  s'ays  Lord  Morley  of  Victoria's 
relations  with  a  Liberal  Government. 

The  Indians  created  some  confusion  at  times, 
especially  when  they  were  travelling.  "  Sir  Henry, 
disquieted  about  Indian  attendants,  whose  castes 
required  three  separate  apartments,"  noted  the  train 
superintendent ;  "  however,  only  two  were  to  be  had." 
This  remark  occurs  various  times  in  comments  upon 
the  journeys,  which  were  occasionally  touched  with 
gleams  of  humour.  Thus  in  1892  a  pungent  smell  of 
hot  oil  arose,  but  no  one  could  find  its  origin;  and 
at  Forfar  the  train  had  to  pull  up. 

1  The  Queen  wants  to  know  what  gars  this  stink !  " 
was  the  question  of  John  Brown's  brother.  It  was 
found  to  be  due  to  a  faulty  locomotive,  which  had  to 
be  detached.  During  the  popularity  of  Sarah  Grand's 
work  one  of  her  Majesty's  ladies,  arriving  at  Windsor, 
was  greatly  distressed  because  she  had  lost  "the 
heavenly  twins,"  and  she  was  sure  she  had  had  them 
during  the  night  in  the  sleeping-saloon. 


358    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

The  Queen  often  dined  at  Perth,  and  it  is  curious 
to  think  of  her  at  table  in  a  room  at  the  Station 
Hotel  there  dining  from  gold  plate,  brought  for  her 
use  from  Tynemouth  Castle  by  her  faithful  subject 
Lord  Breadalbane.  It  gives  a  touch  of  colour  in 
keeping  with  the  royal  saloon,  covered  with  blue  and 
white  silks.  When  G.  P.  Neele  had  taken  her  a 
hundred  times  to  and  fro,  Victoria  presented  him  with 
a  chiming  clock  in  recognition  of  his  services  for 
thirty-one  years,  and  when  he  soon  after  retired  he  had 
an  audience  of  her  and  received  a  valuable  present. 

In  1887  the  Queen  remained  four  weeks  at  Bal- 
moral, trying  to  calm  her  nerves  for  the  great  ceremony 
before  her,  for  she  was  in  no  very  happy  or  confident 
mood.  In  fact,  she  dreaded  the  day  of  Jubilee;  she 
feared  its  fatigues,  for  she  had  allowed  herself  a 
chronic  belief  in  the  delicacy  of  her  health,  and  she 
feared  assassination.  This  will  seem  impossible  to 
some,  yet  she  had  had  more  pistols  pointed  at  her 
than  she  had  fingers  on  one  hand ;  and  though  we  are, 
in  common  with  most  nations,  conscious  of  our  own 
rectitude,  she  had  some  reason  for  her  fear.  How 
often  had  a  storm  of  indignation  risen  around  her 
from  the  ranks  of  her  people  ?  and  what  had  she  ever 
given  to  Ireland  but  her  approval  of  harsh  measures 
and  insensate  punishment  for  a  moral  illness  brought 
on  by  oppression?  What  a  target  might  not  her 
glittering  procession  be  for  dynamite? 

The  incessant  discussions  over  clothes,  guests,  gifts 
and  arrangement  left  her  irritable  and  worn,  so  that 
on  her  return  to  Windsor  she  was  in  a  bad  state  of 


THE  QUEEN  ALIVE   ONCE  MORE      359 

nervous  excitement.  She  had  to  include  guests  whom 
she  did  not  want,  whose  morals  offended  her,  and  she 
felt  no  peace  in  anything,  only  ardently  wishing  that 
all  were  over. 

The  day  came  at  its  appointed  time,  and  passed; 
many  have  written  about  it,  some  with  strong  criticism 
and  others  with  a  happy  faculty  for  universal  admira- 
tion. One  declared  that  her  Majesty  never  looked 
more  cheerful  and  it  was  impossible  to  pick  a  hole  in 
any  of  the  arrangements  for  this  great  and  superb 
show.  Yet  it  was  not  so  great  and  superb  as  it  might 
have  been,  for  the  state  carriage  was  not  used,  and 
there  were  other  things  which  made  it,  despite  its 
uniqueness,  only  a  semi-state  procession. 

Why?  you  may  ask.  Well,  because  her  Majesty 
was  a  very  careful  and  economical  person,  and  the 
supreme  moment  of  her  age  could  not  temper  these 
qualities.  Had  she  gone  in  full  state  the  throne  and 
the  plate  used  would  by  ancient  custom  have  become 
the  property  of  the  Lord  Grand  Chamberlain;  and 
that  was  not  to  be  thought  of ! 

There  were  those  who  said  that  the  Queen  looked 
radiant,  but  Professor  Blackie's  evidence  was  that 
"in  the  last  carriage  was  the  Queen  herself,  whether 
sweet  or  glum  I  could  not  say.  Certainly  she  did 
not  look  radiant.  But  though  a  good  woman  and  an 
excellent  wife  and  a  model  mother,  she  never  did  look 
sublimely  regal  even  in  her  best  days.  So  I  was  not 
disappointed." 

Then,  too,  as  to  the  declaration  that  no  fault  could 
be  found,  William  Allingham  wrote  in  his  diary : 


360    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

"  Foreign  kings  in  covered  carriages  —  long  wait ; 
soldiers  march  off — all  over?  No;  here  come  the 
Indian  princes — some  in  livery  stables  turnout;  two 
hansoms — mismanagement  somewhere." 

The  truth  about  the  Queen's  expression  was  that 
it  differed  at  different  stages ;  at  first  she  was  exceed- 
ingly nervous,  and  one  reporter  said  that  "  at  Waterloo 
Place  her  timorous  agitation  was  pitiable,  her  mouth 
twitching."  Coming  back  she  felt  reassured,  her 
countenance  was  brighter  and  she  showed  a  joyful, 
emotional  excitement. 

The  ten  thousand  people  gathered  in  Westminster 
Abbey  saw  only  the  pathos  and  the  gaiety  of  the 
memorable  scene.  Most  of  them  only  caught  a  pass- 
ing view  of  her  Majesty,  but  the  small  proportion 
who  could  look  down  upon  the  central  spot  of  interest 
saw  a  little  old  woman  sitting  alone  in  a  square  space 
in  an  ancient  chair  whose  historic  framework  had  been 
hidden  by  cloth^f  gold;  before  her  being  a  prie-dieu 
so  tall  that  no  one  under  six  feet  high  could  use  it. 

"  She  sat  alone,  how  terribly  alone  in  the  vast 
crowd,  and  with  what  memories  of  the  past  thronging 
about  her,  a  moment  that  I  am  not  at  all  ashamed  to 
say  made  me  feel  disposed  to  weep  out  of  sympathy 
and  reverence.  There  were  many  people  in  the 
galleries  in  front  and  immediately  right  and  left 
staring  straight  in  her  face  through  opera  glasses.  It 
was  not  a  part  of  the  Steward's  duties  to  stop  such 
vulgarities,  or  how  gladly  one  would  have  done  it !  "  1 

1  The  Coronation.  Article  in  The  Nineteenth  Century  and 
After.  By  Somers  Clark. 


THE  QUEEN  ALIVE  ONCE  MORE      361 

Fashions  and  manners  had  certainly  changed  for 
the  worse  since  Victoria  opened  her  first  Parliament, 
and  Lady  Jersey  raised  general  indignation  in  her 
own  class  by  using  opera  glasses. 

At  some  distance,  facing  the  Queen,  sat  the  foreign 
kings  and  princes;  on  her  right  stood  the  royal 
princes  and  on  her  left  the  princesses.  When  the 
service  was  over  these  defiled  before  her,  and  she 
kissed  all  but  the  Crown  Prince  of  Germany  and 
Prince  Louis  of  Hesse ;  and  when  they  had  all  passed 
she  remembered  that  she  had  made  a  difference,  and 
had  those  two  called  back  that  they  also  might  receive 
the  royal  salute. 

When  the  Queen  returned  to  Buckingham  Palace 
after  the  long  hours  of  driving  she  received  a  message 
from  the  aged  Duchess  of  Cambridge  hoping  she  was 
not  tired ;  and  her  answer  was — 

"  I  am  too  happy  to  be  tired." 

There  was  a  painful  side  to  this  day  of  rejoicing, 
and  one  which  centred  in  the  Abbey  itself.  To  the 
undiscriminating  the  interior  of  that  marvellous  build- 
ing gave  no  jarring  shock;  the  brilliant  uniforms  and 
gorgeous  dresses,  filling  every  available  space  from 
the  floor  to  the  roof,  hid  the  poor  decorations  and 
made  a  picture  of  beauty.  But  to  those  who  knew 
and  loved  the  Abbey,  behind  all  the  extraneous  glow 
and  colour  lay  the  most  revolting  desecration,  indig- 
nity and  callous  disregard  of  real  beauty. 

Thus  when  her  Majesty  alighted  from  her  carriage, 
in  place  of  entering  the  Abbey  through  a  great  open 
door  beneath  the  high  roof  soaring  above  her  head, 


362    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

instead  of  seeing  at  once  before  her  the  solemn  and 
noble  interior,  one  of  the  most  splendid  things  the 
world  can  show,  she  found  herself  in  a  little  dark 
passage  some  ten  feet  high,  crushed  down  beneath  the 
feet  of  many  of  her  subjects.  The  Times  declared 
that  the  effect  was  that  of  a  circus,  the  horses  coming 
into  the  ring  under  a  red  baize  box  with  a  braying 
band  in  it :  "  That  was  the  place  of  entry  of  the  august 
Lady  in  whose  reverence  we  had  all  assembled." 

The  arrangements  of  the  Abbey  had  been  taken 
out  of  the  hands  of  all  the  responsible  Abbey  officials, 
who  knew  the  building's  capabilities,  its  weak  spots 
and  what  it  could  bear,  and  given  entirely  over  to  a 
firm  of  respectable  undertakers,  "  the  eminently  re- 
spectable and  entirely  unsuitable  firm  of  Messrs. 
Banting." 

They  had  arranged  three  great  tiers  of  galleries, 
one  above  the  other,  over  the  west  door,  through 
which  the  Queen  made  her  entry,  which  necessitated 
the  low  passage  and  the  circus-like  effect.  The  Times 
further  tells  how  the  galleries  and  the  floor  were 
covered  with  bath-red,  which  had  the  tint  of  cold 
blood  and  was  incredibly  mean  and  inartistic;  the 
red  was  dotted  all  over  with  a  ridiculous  travesty  of 
the  Star  of  the  Bath  in  white  shaded  with  dirty  grey. 
This  carpet  of  cheap  and  nasty  baize  added  to  the 
circus  effect,  and  drew  from  some  reminiscent  people 
a  fancy  picture  of  what  the  Abbey  might  have  been 
treated  with  reverence  and  the  floor  covered  with  the 
rich  rugs  which  were  used  at  the  coronation  of 
George  IV. 


THE  QUEEN   ALIVE  ONCE   MORE      363 

Mr.  Somers  Clark,  in  his  article  in  The  Nineteenth 
Century  and  After,  tells  some  gruesome  stories  of  the 
method  of  preparing  the  Abbey  by  Banting's  men. 
For  instance,  the  Coronation  Chair,  the  pride  of  two 
nations,  was  smeared  over  with  stain  and  varnish,  and 
futile  upholstery  was  nailed  into  the  remnants  of  the 
gessowork  still  adhering  to  the  back  and  arms.  The 
chair  was  then  dragged  over  the  wonderful  Abbot 
Ware  pavement  in  front  of  the  altar,  altogether  irre- 
spective of  damage  to  the  mosaic.  A  question  being 
asked  in  the  Commons  about  the  treatment  of  the 
chair,  Banting  was  ordered  to  remove  the  disfigure- 
ment, so  the  men  set  to  work  with  spirit  to  wash  off 
the  discoloration.  Somers  Clark  declares  that  he  saw 
them,  after  dabbing  on  the  spirit,  rub  it  off  with  the 
tails  of  their  rough  cotton  shirts.  He  must  have  meant 
the  aprons,  or  whatever  the  men  call  their  save-all 
garments ;  but  even  then  the  indignity  was  bad  enough. 

When  it  was  all  over  the  floor  of  the  North 
Ambulatory  had  yielded  considerably  through  the 
heavy  beams;  the  porphyry  and  serpentine  pavement 
of  St.  Edward's  Chapel  was  badly  damaged;  and 
the  surface  was  dragged  from  the  old  grey  walls  in 
long  bands  of  white  in  many  places. 

"  Happy  inspiration  !  Dirt  from  the  London  streets 
was  collected,  soup  made  of  it  in  buckets,  and  this 
was  dabbed  on  the  wounded  places  with  mops.  This 
I  saw  done,"  said  Somers  Clark. 

One  wonders  by  what  arrangement  a  firm  of  under- 
takers were  given  this  free  hand  to  mar  England's 
greatest  building. 


864    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Of  those  who  rode  in  the  Queen's  great  procession 
that  day  the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia  won  the  most 
attention  in  his  white  uniform,  and  though  he  looked 
pale  and  grey,  few  knew  that  he  was  ill.  Two  queens 
were  among  the  guests,  the  Queen  of  the  Netherlands 
and  the  Queen  of  the  Sandwich  Islands.  Of  the  latter 
Sir  Lyon  Playfair  wrote — 

"  The  only  person  who  was  of  greater  importance 
in  England  than  in  her  own  dominions  was  the  Queen 
of  the  Sandwich  Islands.  She  refused  a  guard  of 
Hussars,  and  said  that  she  would  not  leave  her  hotel 
unless  Life  Guards  were  sent  to  her  as  a  crowned 
head,  and  she  got  her  way.  Another  story  went  that 
the  kings  had  struck  and  refused  to  offer  their  arms 
to  her  sable  Majesty  at  the  state  balls,  so  the  Dukes 
of  Edinburgh  and  Connaught  had  to  discharge  this 
duty.  It  was  surprising  how  this  island  queen  main- 
tained her  royal  dignity.  I  waited  upon  her  Majesty 
one  evening,  and  she  received  me  and  conversed 
through  an  interpreter  in  excellent  style."  l 

There  was,  however,  another  very  important  person 
in  the  procession,  and  that  was  a  coachman,  who  was 
asked  if  he  would  be  driving  any  of  the  imperial  or 
royal  guests  then  staying  at  Buckingham  Palace,  and 
who  replied,  with  proper  pride — 

"No,  sir;  I  am  the  Queen's  coachman.  I  don't 
drive  riff-raff." 

The  great  day  drew  to  its  close  with  an  excited, 
shouting  multitude  thronging  the  streets;  here  was  a 

1  Lyon  Playfair,  Memoirs  and  Correspondence.  By  Wemyss 
Reid. 


THE  QUEEN  ALIVE  ONCE  MORE      365 

chance  of  amusing  themselves,  and  they  took  it  with- 
out reasoning  why  or  blessing  the  cause  of  it;  but 
they  were  so  heady  that  they  might  have  been  invert- 
ing themselves  to  let  their  blood  run  to  their  brains. 
Some  remained  cool,  perhaps  stayed  at  home,  of  whom 
one  was  Lord  Derby,  who  remarked  that  though  he 
had  been  very  grateful  to  the  Queen  for  much  she 
had  done,  and  especially  for  much  she  might  have 
done  and  had  not,  he  had  not  yet  managed  to  work 
himself  into  a  state  of  enthusiastic  gratitude  to  her 
for  having  reigned  fifty  years.1 

These  were  dreadful  sentiments  when  every  one 
was  bubbling  over  with  animal  spirits  and  sentimen- 
tality, but  the  mark  of  a  balanced  mind  none  the 
less. 

Aix-les-Bains,  grateful  for  her  Majesty's  recent 
visit,  in  company  with  other  continental  places,  blazed 
its  enthusiasm  into  the  night  sky,  priding  itself  upon 
its  magnificent  -piece  de  resistance  which  set  forth  its 
"  Hommage  a  la  Reine  Victoria,"  and  in  its  eagerness 
fixed  it  upside  down. 

Bismarck,  too,  had  cast  about  for  a  way  of  celebrat- 
ing, and  his  most  pointed  idea  was  to  instruct  one  of 
his  creatures  to  write  an  article  upon  the  relative 
merits  of  Queen  Victoria  and  Queen  Elizabeth,  of 
course,  as  he  said,  "  not  to  the  advantage  or  the  credit 
of  the  former."  But  his  iron  will  went  flabby  for  once, 
or  rather  deeper  and  more  sinister  intrigues  occupied 
his  mind,  for  the  article  was  not  written.  It  was  a 
good  thing,  for  the  Queen  would  have  been  hurt,  as  of 
1  That  Reminds  Me.  By  Sir  Edward  Russell. 


366    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

all  historical  English  persons  she  most  hated  Elizabeth 
and  most  loved  the  Stuarts,  especially  Mary,  Queen 
of  Scots.  Yet  there  were  many  points  of  resemblance 
between  her  character  and  that  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
and  it  was  Dean  Stanley  who  once  said,  "When 
she  faces  you  down  with  her  '  It  must  be ! '  I  don't 
know  whether  it  is  Victoria  or  Elizabeth  who  is 
speaking." 

For  weeks  the  retreating  wheels  of  the  Jubilee 
rumbled  in  her  Majesty's  ears.  She  gave  a  great 
garden  party  at  Buckingham  Palace,  at  which,  after 
the  first  appearance  of  the  Queen,  when  the  guests 
were  marshalled  into  lanes  for  her  to  walk  down,  greet- 
ing those  she  knew,  the  well-bred  guests  literally 
mobbed  her,  opening  out  before  her,  closing  when 
she  had  passed,  and  then  rushing  on  in  front  to  get 
another  stare.  (I  saw  the  same  thing  done  at  the 
Quirinal  a  few  years  ago  by  people  of  all  countries, 
but  not  by  Italians.)  The  diplomatist  Sir  Frederick 
St.  John,  who  was  at  the  Buckingham  Palace  party, 
drew  a  favourable  contrast  to  the  aristocracy  of  Russia 
under  the  same  circumstances;  which  should  clear 
Russia  on  at  least  one  point  of  the  charge  of 
barbarism. 

In  July  the  Queen  paid  a  visit  to  her  Prime  Minister 
at  Hatfield,  and  she  attended  a  naval  review  in  the 
.Solent,  at  which,  however,  she  lost  her  nerve,  being 
very  glad  when  it  was  over.  All  through  her  August 
visit  to  Osborne  she  received  such  masses  of  corre- 
spondence on  the  past  event  and  had  to  give  so  much 
thought  to  it  that  it  became  a  nightmare,  for  hidden 


THE  QUEEN  ALIVE  ONCE  MORE      367 

in  her  heart,  under  all  the  pleasure  in  the  goodwill 
shown,  lay  a  terrible  sorrow. 

For  years  she  had  grieved  over  the  troubles  which 
sometimes  threatened  to  overwhelm  her  eldest 
daughter,  the  Crown  Princess  of  Germany;  troubles 
arising  from  the  animosity  and  jealousy  of  Bismarck. 
Now  there  was  a  worse  calamity,  in  that  the  Crown 
Prince  was  afflicted  with  a  serious  disease.  After  the 
Jubilee  he  underwent  a  slight  operation  in  England, 
the  effects  of  which  allowed  him  to  eat  and  speak 
without  pain ;  and  then  the  question  had  to  be  decided 
as  to  a  long  absence  from  Berlin  and  from  the  Court 
over  which  Prince  Bismarck  reigned  supreme,  with — 
as  his  aide-de-camp — Prince  William,  a  Hohenzollern 
who  concentrated  in  himself  the  most  salient  faults 
of  his  race. 


CHAPTER    XXII 

THE    CROWN    PRINCESS 

"  My  poor,  dear,  persecuted  daughter  !  " — Queen  Victoria  of 
the  Empress  Frederick. 

"Germany  will  pay  dearly  for  the  honour  of  having  had 
Bismarck  at  her  head,  and  for  having  possessed  the  most 
incapable  Parliament  that  ever  existed.  The  future  will  avenge 
Europe,  for  what  now  makes  the  glory  of  Prussia  will  be  the 
cause  of  her  ruin  in  time  to  come.  It  is  not  with  impunity  that 
all  the  vital  strength  of  a  nation  is  centred  in  one  man  .  .  . 
although  he  has  triumphed  over  six  successive  Parliaments  by 
the  same  artifices,  although  he  has  aggrandized  his  country 
and  made  himself  the  arbiter  of  Europe,  imposing  his  will  on 
all,  Prince  Bismarck  has  at  the  same  time  prepared  the  fall  and 
annihilation  of  his  country."  —  'Society  in  Berlin.'  By  Count 
Paul  Vasili.  1885. 

THERE  has,  perhaps,  never  lived  a  ruling  sovereign 
about  whom  some  marriage  secret  has  not  been  related, 
and  during  the  preparations  for  the  Jubilee  such  a 
story  was  unearthed  about  Prince  Albert, — who  was 
in  effect  a  ruling  sovereign — was  given  publicity  in 
the  New  York  World  and  copied  into  some  English 
newspapers.  Such  stories  were  told  about  George  II, 
George  III,  George  IV,  William  IV  and  nearly  all 
the  different  members  of  the  different  royal  genera- 
tions ;  so  if  Albert  did  not  suffer  in  exactly  good  com- 
pany, there  were  at  least  people  of  equal  rank  who 

shared  his  misfortune. 

368 


THE  CROWN  PRINCESS  369 

The  story  was  to  the  effect  that  in  a  little  back  street 
of  New  York  a  certain  Mrs.  Kent  kept  a  shop,  and 
that  she  was  actually  Queen  Victoria's  eldest  daughter, 
and  in  this  wise  :  In  1839,  while  wandering  about  the 
Continent,  Albert  of  Coburg  had  fallen  in  love  with 
and  married  a  Countess  von  Reuss,  member  of  a  well- 
known  German  family,  and  then  in  the  autumn  of  that 
year  came  the  Queen's  intimation  to  Albert  that  she 
thought  their  union  would  be  a  wise  and  happy  event. 
The  Countess  von  Reuss  bore  Albert  a  daughter  on 
November  8,  1840,  and  on  the  2ist  of  the  same  month 
the  Princess  Royal  was  born.  Upon  this  the  deserted 
countess  promised  to  efface  herself  on  condition  that 
the  children  should  be  changed,  her  child  taking  the 
position  of  Albert's  eldest  daughter,  while  Victoria's 
child  was  to  be  given  over  to  the  care  of  the  Countess. 
After  much  persuasion  the  reluctant  prince  agreed,  the 
exchange  was  secretly  made,  and  the  English  princess 
grew  up  abroad.  Her  life  was  one  of  vicissitude. 
She  married  but  got  a  divorce  from  her  husband,  went 
to  America  under  the  name  of  Mrs.  Kent,  came  back 
and  lived  in  Paris,  whence  she  wrote  to  Victoria  for 
money,  John  Brown  being  sent  over  there  to  see  her 
and  arrange  matters.  When  last  heard  of,  that  is 
at  the  Jubilee,  she  was  keeping  this  shop  in  New 
York. 

It  was  so  absurd  a  story  that  no  one  heeded  it, 
especially  as  with  the  repetition  of  it  apologetic  ex- 
planations were  published  to  the  effect  that  early  in 
the  century  the  Duke  of  Kent  had  for  a  time  settled 
down  with  some  lady,  who  was  generally  known  as 


BB 


370    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Mrs.  Kent,  and  of  whom  this  person  of  New  York  was 
a  descendant. 

Those  of  us  who  know  the  late  portraits  of  the 
Empress  and  compare  them  with  those  of  the  Queen, 
could  have  no  doubt  that  they  were  mother  and 
daughter,  though  in  her  little  volume,  Recollections 
of  a  Royal  Parish,  Patricia  Lindsay  says,  "  She  always 
seemed  to  me  very  unlike  her  brothers  and  sisters  in 
appearance ;  the  type  of  face  was  different,  and  though 
not  handsome  in  feature  was  highly  intelligent  and  in 
youth  very  winning  .  .  .  inheriting,  in  the  Queen's 
opinion,  much  of  her  father's  nature  and  talent." 

This  description,  somewhat  invidious  in  form,  does 
not  mean  that  the  brothers  and  sisters  were  not 
clever,  for  though  the  Princess  was  extremely  clever — 
in  a  different  way  from  her  father,  for  while  he  was 
academic  she  was  creative — she  yet  was  in  some  ways 
extremely  stupid.  In  her  tactlessness  and  indifference 
to  public  opinion  and  the  feelings  of  those  she  dis- 
liked, she  was  very  much  like  her  mother,  though,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  which  was  obstinacy  in  the  Queen 
developed  as  spirit  with  her,  and  she  was  entirely  free 
from  the  weakness  of  self-commiseration  which  was 
so  marked  a  feature  of  Victoria's  middle  life.  Albert 
Edward  was  in  many  ways  far  more  clever  than  his 
eldest  sister,  and  though  he  did  not  distinguish  him- 
self with  the  paint-brush  and  the  chisel,  or  in  scientific 
and  diplomatic  arguments,  his  judgment  upon  all  the 
essentials  of  his  state  and  position  was  impeccable. 
The  public  is  already  beginning  to  see  that  Edward 
VII  is  by  far  the  greatest  person  that  his  family, 


THE  CROWN   PRINCESS  371 

either  on  the  Guelphic  or  the  Wettin  side,  has  yet 
produced. 

The  New  York  World  story  does,  however,  bring 
to  mind  the  rumours  which  spread  about  early  in  the 
married  life  of  Albert  and  Victoria  of  a  strange  foreign 
lady  seeking  the  former  at  Buckingham  Palace,  of  a 
lady  starting  from  the  Continent  to  find  him,  and  being 
intercepted  and  sent  back  before  she  could  get  here, 
and  subsequently  of  a  mad  woman  who  tried  to  annoy 
him  with  her  delusions. 

Almost  from  the  beginning  the  eldest  princess's  life 
had  held  the  element  of  strife;  she  adored  her  father, 
and  always  ranged  herself  by  his  side  in  any  difference 
between  him  and  her  mother;  and  even  to  the  Queen 
she  never  failed  from  her  youth  up  to  say  what  she 
thought  on  any  subject  of  dispute,  such  as  the  favour 
shown  to  John  Brown,  or  to  the  Battenbergs. 

Her  life  in  Prussia  was  an  unending  struggle  with 
Bismarck,  for,  as  has  been  said,  that  statesman 
abhorred  all  royal  women,  fearing  their  influence,  and 
he  was  not  sparing  of  brutal  criticism,  for  which  he 
secured  publication  in  the  Press  of  many  countries, 
attacking  in  turn  the  old  Empress,  Empress  Augusta 
and  the  Crown  Princess.  This  struggle  culminated  in 
1887  and  1888  with  the  illness  of  the  Crown  Prince 
Frederick,  and  the  proposed  marriage  of  his  daughter 
Victoria  to  Alexander  of  Battenberg,  matters  which 
absorbed  Queen  Victoria's  thoughts. 

It  was  obvious  to  all  that  the  old  Emperor  William 
could  not  live  long,  and  Bismarck  looked  forward  with 
unconcealed  repulsion  to  the  reign  of  Frederick,  with 


372    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

whose  enlightened  views  he  had  no  sympathy;  and 
when  he  knew  that  the  heir  was  suffering  from  a  disease 
in  the  throat,  he  hailed  it  as  a  means  of  deliverance 
from  a  dangerous  situation.  He  knew  that  various 
Hohenzollerns  had  suffered  from  cancer,  and  suspect- 
ing that  this  dread  disease  had  once  more  appeared, 
he  at  once  studied  the  possibility  of  passing  over  the, 
to  him,  obnoxious  generation.  Prince  William,  sus- 
ceptible to  theories  of  force,  was  in  his  hands;  for 
years  the  Chancellor  had  been  training  him  in  his 
system  of  warfare,  aggression  and  greed  of  power  and 
land.  He  had  also  been  training  him  into  opposition 
against  his  parents,  and  whole-hearted  concord  with 
himself.  He  regarded  William  as  his  puppet,  and 
thought  that  if  only  Frederick  could  be  eliminated 
his  own  further  reign  over  Prussia  would  be  assured. 

Would  William  I  outlive  his  son?  He  hoped  so, 
but  he  dared  not  leave  it  to  chance.  So  he  discovered 
an  old  Hohenzollern  law,  said  to  apply  only  to  in- 
sanity, and  twisted  it  into  one  making  a  mortal  malady 
a  bar  to  the  succession.  He  insisted  upon  the  surgeons 
and  physicians  to  the  Prince  being  appointed  by  the 
State,  that  is  to  say  by  himself,  and  ruled  that  their 
verdict  should  be  final.  The  chief  of  these  was 
Professor  von  Bergmann,  a  skilful  surgeon  who  loved 
using  the  knife,  whether  necessary  or  not. 

By  the  spring  of  1887  the  disease  had  become 
serious,  and  the  Princess  had  found  out  that  a  pecu- 
liarly odious  form  of  espionage  was  being  exercised 
m  her  home  by  people  installed  by  Bismarck.  There 
were  spies,  sycophants  and  scandal-mongers  among 


THE   CROWN  PRINCESS  373 

her  servants,  and  lies  and  half-truths,  to  the  injury  of 
the  Crown  Prince,  were  disseminated  until  Berlin 
became  a  veritable  whispering  gallery. 

Bismarck  had  more  than  one  string  to  his  bow;  he 
caused  a  meeting  with  the  Emperor  of  the  Crown 
Prince  and  Prince  William,  at  which  the  future  situa- 
tion was  discussed.  No  one  knows  what  happened, 
but  the  story  went  that  Frederick  decided  to  waive 
his  right  of  succession  in  favour  of  his  son.  It  was 
further  added  that  Bismarck  had  secured  a  written 
promise  to  that  effect,  but  he  was  never  able  to  pro- 
duce such  a  document.  Yet  so  public  had  the  matter 
become  that  the  young  prince  was  openly  believed  to 
be  a  party  to  a  conspiracy  to  deprive  his  father  of  the 
Crown. 

The  doctors  declared,  and  rightly,  that  the  Crown 
Prince  was  afflicted  with  cancer,  and  von  Bergmann 
said  the  only  chance  of  saving  him  was  that  a  danger- 
ous and  almost  certainly  fatal  operation  should  be 
performed,  that  is  to  say  that  the  affected  portion  of  the 
larynx  should  be  removed.  This  would  at  best  have 
caused  dumbness,  and  thus  in  either  case  the  Prince 
would,  according  to  the  Chancellor's  ruling,  be  unfit 
to  reign. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  Princess  was  entirely 
opposed  to  the  operation,  so  von  Bergmann  decided 
that  he  must  make  a  further  examination,  which  would 
necessitate  the  use  of  anaesthetics.  It  was  whispered 
in  Court  circles  that  he  was  really  in  the  act  of  begin- 
ning the  actual  operation  when  the  Crown  Princess, 
suspecting  his  aim,  tore  the  instruments  out  of  his 


374    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

hands  and  turned  him  out  of  the  room.  A  picture  of 
the  event  painted  later  by  Oreste  Cortazzo  showed 
her  kicking  the  door  open  for  the  discomfited  doctor's 
exit,  he  holding  his  face  as  though  it  had  been  struck. 

Through  this  dreadful  time  of  trial  the  Crown 
Princess  was  in  constant  communication  with  her 
mother,  and  Dr.  Morell  Mackenzie  was  sent  to  Berlin, 
through  Victoria's  influence  and  with  the  acquiescence 
of  the  German  doctors,  who  did  not  like  the  stories 
that  were  current.  His  verdict  was  that  the  throat  was 
cancerous,  but  that  in  his  opinion  it  might  be  cured 
by  other  means  than  the  knife.  Upon  this  a  violent 
storm  arose,  the  one  side  saying  that  the  Crown  Prince 
must  die  in  six  months  if  not  operated  upon,  and  the 
other  that  he  would  die  at  once  if  the  operation  took 
place. 

So  the  Princess  brought  him  to  England — incident- 
ally to  make  a  lasting  impression  upon  the  public  by 
his  gallant  bearing — and  later  took  him  to  the  Tyrol 
and  San  Remo.  It  was  not  until  Emperor  William 
died  in  March  1888,  his  last  words  being  "  dear  Fritz," 
that  the  royal  couple  returned  to  the  Charlottenberg, 
Berlin. 

Of  the  awful  nightmare  of  persecution  which  fol- 
lowed, every  sort  of  mental  annoyance  being  inflicted 
upon  the  new  but  dying  Kaiser,  there  is  no  room  here 
to  write,  but  it  is  said  that  every  one  was  in  terror 
when  William  came  to  see  his  father  lest  he  should 
suggest  that  he  became  Regent.  And  when  Frederick 
died  in  June,  after  a  reign  of  ninety-nine  days,  Prince 
William  at  once  showed  his  true  character.  He  was 


H.R.H.  THE  PRINCESS  ROYAL 
After  a  painting  by  Winterhalter 


THE   CROWN   PRINCESS  375 

present  at  the  last  moments  in  the  New  Palace, 
Potsdam,  to  which  his  father  had  been  moved,  and 
as  soon  as  the  Emperor  had  drawn  his  last  breath  he 
ordered  the  guard  to  be  doubled  round  the  palace, 
and  no  one  to  be  allowed  to  leave  or  enter.  He  then 
declared  that  all  the  property  of  those  within,  his 
mother,  sisters  and  attendants,  was  confiscated  for  the 
time,  and  he  personally  "  went  through "  their  bed- 
rooms, boudoirs,  cupboards,  desks,  strong  boxes,  jewel 
boxes  and  every  other  receptacle  for  clothes,  articles 
or  papers.  He  told  his  mother's  officials  and  servants 
that  now  he  was  master,  and  only  his  orders  were  to 
be  obeyed.  He  tore  up  the  list  of  persons  who  might 
be  admitted  to  look  for  the  last  time  on  the  dead 
emperor,  which  the  Empress  Frederick  had  given  to 
her  chamberlain,  and  substituted  an  order  for  the 
admission  of  high  army  officers.  In  fact,  he  heaped 
insults  upon  his  dead  father  and  his  living  mother. 
When  the  Empress  Frederick  left  her  home  three 
months  later  for  good,  she  is  reported  to  have  said 
good-bye  to  her  officials  and  servants  with  these  words, 
"If  you  ever  want  to  see  your  old  mistress  again  you 
must  come  to  Berlin,  where  I  will  make  you  welcome. 
May  palsy  strike  my  foot  if  ever  I  thrust  it  over  this 
threshold  again !  "  She  is  said  never  again  to  have 
entered  the  palace  in  which  most  of  her  womanhood 
had  been  passed. 

Thus  did  William  help  to  build  up  a  bitter  enmity 
between  himself  and  the  royal  family  of  England. 

The  reason  for  his  search  of  his  mother's  home  was 
that  his  father  was  said  to  have  kept  a  detailed  diary, 


376    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

one  volume  of  which  proved  conclusively  that  the 
whole  German  Emperor  idea  originated  with  and  was 
planned  by  Frederick.  As  Bismarck  had  arrogated  to 
himself  all  the  credit  for  this,  he  was  keenly  anxious 
that  the  diary  should  never  be  given  to  the  world,  and 
had  instilled  into  his  pupil  the  necessity  of  confiscat- 
ing all  the  volumes  for  fear  of  State  secrets  being 
revealed.  None  of  them  was  found,  however,  and  one 
story  went  that  Queen  Victoria  had  carried  them, 
knowingly  or  otherwise,  to  England  with  her  after 
she  had  visited  her  daughter  at  Potsdam  in  April  1888 ; 
another  was  to  the  effect  that  Sir  Morell  Mackenzie 
had  brought  them  to  England. 

However,  the  particular  1870-71  volume  had  been 
put  into  the  hands  of  Dr .  Geffcken,  a  friend  of 
Frederick's,  who  published  it  in  a  newspaper  inimical 
to  Bismarck,  whereupon  the  latter  brought  all  his 
Press  influence  into  play  by  confiscating  the  offending 
paper,  having  abusive  articles  published  about  the 
dead  Kaiser,  saying  that  he  was  but  a  nonentity,  who 
could  never  be  trusted  with  knowledge  of  State  affairs 
as  he  would  reveal  them  to  England,  and  that  if  the 
diary  was  genuine  he  was  a  traitor  to  Germany. 
Geffcken  was  seized  and  imprisoned,  but  when  he  was 
tried  by  the  Imperial  Court  of  Judicature  at  Leipsic 
on  a  charge  of  high  treason  he  was  pronounced  inno- 
cent, which  was  the  second  blow  received  by  Bismarck 
in  the  new  reign.  Through  all  this  the  young  Kaiser 
William  by  his  studied  silence  showed  that  he  did  not 
disapprove  of  this  attack  on  his  father. 

There  is  a  story  that  among  the  Queen's  possessions 


THE   CROWN   PRINCESS  377 

after  her  return  from  Germany  the  other  volumes  of 
the  diary  were  found,  and  that  a  year  later  she  sent 
them  back  to  William,  with  their  seals  unbroken,  an 
act  which  earned  for  her  her  grandson's  gratitude, 
and  made  him  revise  his  determination  never  to  visit 
England. 

After  Kaiser  Frederick's  death  William  must  have 
felt  his  relations  with  his  mother's  country  to  be 
seriously  strained,  and,  according  to  his  character,  put 
the  whole  burden  of  fault  upon  England.  The  Prince 
of  Wales  was  in  Berlin  in  June  and  remained  there 
for  some  time,  deputed  by  the  Queen  to  guard  his 
sister's  interests,  and  protect  her  from  the  insults  of 
her  son  and  Bismarck.  It  was  to  the  latter's  interest 
to  keep  the  young  Kaiser  apart  from  his  mother  and 
her  family,  and  to  gain  this  end  he  once  more  resorted 
to  the  Press,  causing  articles  "  made  in  Germany  "  to 
be  inserted  in  some  of  the  English  papers — he  boasted 
of  having  captured  three  of  the  most  important — in 
which  William  was  painted  in  the  blackest  colours; 
while  in  Germany  he  had  other  articles  given  to  the 
curious  world,  full  of  bitter  denunciations  of  the 
Empress  Frederick  and  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  to 
cap  the  affair  further  inserted  in  the  German  papers 
anonymous  denunciations  of  the  scandalous  things 
said  by  the  English  Press.  It  is  almost  incredible, 
but  it  is  all  to  be  read  in  the  books  upon  Bismarck, 
especially  in  those  by  his  servant  Busch,  Some  Secret 
Pages  of  His  History,  and  others.  A  country  which 
could  produce  a  powerful  man  like  Bismarck  and  a 
subservient  tool  like  Busch,  congratulating  themselves 


378    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

and  each  other  with  pride  over  their  want  of  honour, 
was,  in  spite  of  its  apparent  strength,  even  then  on  the 
road  to  failure.  It  was  Busch  who  noted  on  June  16— 

"  I  wrote  to  Bucher  a  few  lines  expressing  the  satis- 
faction I  felt  that  we  were  relieved  of  that  incubus, 
the  Emperor  Frederick,  and  that  his  place  was  now 
to  be  taken  by  a  disciple  and  admirer  of  the  Chief." 

All  these  things  taken  into  account,  Albert  Edward 
had  no  very  easy  time  in  Berlin,  especially  as  no  love 
was  lost  between  him  and  his  nephew.  As  boy  and 
youth  William  had  been  arrogant  and  ill-mannered, 
and  his  uncle  had  duly  snubbed  him;  as  the  years 
passed  the  English  prince  had  seen  far  more  deeply 
into  the  nature  of  the  German  emperor  and  into  his 
plans  than  the  latter  liked.  He  knew  the  sinister 
hopes  and  ambitions  of  the  young  man's  mind,  and, 
while  not  interfering  with  him,  set  himself  to  gain 
friends  among  the  nations  for  Great  Britain.  It  is  to 
him  that  we  owe  the  beginning  of  the  great  change 
in  our  relations  with  France,  for  he  loved  the  French 
capital  as  much  as  he  shrank  from  the  pomposities 
of  Berlin.  But  this  preference  and  his  friendliness 
with  other  European  powers  raised  unmitigated  spite 
and  anger  which,  being  cleverly  worked  by  the  German 
Press,  has  led  to  their  present-day  stories  of  how  King 
Edward  of  England  tried  to  set  an  iron  wall  around 
the  Fatherland. 

For  several  years  after  1888  the  Prince  of  Wales 
and  the  Kaiser  scarcely  spoke  to  each  other,  but  Queen 
Victoria  could  not  so  show  her  displeasure,  nor  did  she 
wish  to  do  so.  William  was  her  eldest  grandchild, 


THE  CROWN   PRINCESS  379 

and  had  been  much  loved,  and  she  was  ready  to  accept 
what  extenuation  could  be  found  for  his  conduct;  he 
was  not  all  she  wished,  but  he  would  make  Prussia 
strong,  hold  fast  to  the  united  Germany  and  be  a  great 
European  power.  So,  angry  as  she  was  at  his  treat- 
ment of  his  mother,  she  yet  felt  grief  that  he  assumed 
a  personally  hostile  attitude  to  herself.  It  was  not 
until  the  autumn  of  1899  that,  annoyed  at  the  snubs 
which  Russia  dealt  him  and  already  contemplating  the 
rupture  with  Bismarck,  William  paid  his  first  visit  to 
England  as  ruler  of  Germany.  Victoria  was  delighted 
and  showed  him  every  mark  of  honour  that  was 
possible.  William  on  his  side  was  as  eager  for  friend- 
ship, and  so  began  a  period  of  peaceful  feeling  be- 
tween the  two  countries  which  was  strengthened  by  the 
fall  of  Bismarck  the  next  year. 

It  is  necessary  to  go  back  in  time,  for  there  was 
another  dispute  in  1887  and  the  following  year  which 
had  for  its  parties  Queen  Victoria  and  her  daughter, 
the  Crown  Princess,  on  the  one  hand,  and  Bismarck 
and  Prince  William  on  the  other.  This  was  over 
Alexander  of  Battenberg,  and  the  wonder  was  that  the 
Crown  Princess  should  have  championed  one  of  that 
family.  However,  her  excuse  was  that  her  daughter 
Victoria  was  very  much  in  love  and  had  won  her 
consent. 

This  daughter,  Victoria,  was  said  to  be  the  least 
attractive  and  least  popular  of  the  Prussian  royal 
children,  but  at  her  cousin's  wedding  at  Darmstadt — 
the  Hesse-Battenberg  marriage — she  had  fallen  in  love 
with  Alexander  Battenberg,  then  Prince  of  Bulgaria, 


380    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

who  was  regarded  as  the  most  handsome  and  fascinat- 
ing man  in  Europe.  His  Bulgarian  throne  had  col- 
lapsed in  1886,  and  he,  without  position  or  fortune, 
went  to  live  in  Darmstadt,  his  one  ambition  being  to 
return  to  his  position  in  the  Prussian  army.  Then 
came  the  chance  of  marrying  into  the  Prussian  royal 
family,  and  though  he  must  have  been  ready  to  seize 
it  with  delight,  there  must  also  have  been  some  strong 
misgivings  mixed  with  his  emotion. 

Queen  Victoria  accepted  the  idea  eagerly,  for,  as  has 
been  said,  she  loved  a  romance,  and  she  also  had  a 
strong  partiality  for  the  Battenbergs.  Bismarck,  to 
whom  neither  reasons  appealed,  was  dead  against  such 
a  match,  and  with  some  cause,  but  he  was  wrong  in 
regarding  the  Queen's  approval  of  it  simply  as  a 
diplomatic  attempt  to  spite  Russia  by  making  Prussia 
pick  up  the  man  whom  Russia  had  cast  down  from  the 
Bulgarian  throne.  However,  that  was  the  attitude  he 
took,  adding  that  Victoria  was  trying  to  injure  Prussia 
by  causing  a  rupture  with  the  power  which  he  had  so 
long  wooed. 

The  matter  dragged  through  some  contentious 
months,  and  in  April  1888  the  Chancellor  thus 
delivered  himself  to  Busch — 

'  The  old  Queen  is  fond  of  matchmaking — like  all 
old  women — and  she  may  have  selected  Prince 
Alexander  for  her  granddaughter  because  he  is  a 
brother  to  her  son-in-law,  the  husband  of  her  favourite 
daughter  Beatrice.  But  obviously  her  main  objects 
are  political — a  permanent  estrangement  between  our- 
selves and  Russia — and  if  she  should  come  here  for 


THE  CROWN   PRINCESS  381 

the  Princess's  birthday  there  would  be  the  greatest 
danger  that  she  would  get  her  way.  In  family  matters 
she  is  not  accustomed  to  contradiction,  and  would 
immediately  bring  the  parson  with  her  in  her  travelling 
bag  and  the  bridegroom  in  her  trunk,  and  the  marriage 
would  come  off  at  once." 

He  declared,  concerning  the  suffering  Emperor 
Frederick,  "  They  (the  Empress  and  her  daughter 
Victoria)  actually  ill-treated,  abused  and  martyred  him 
when  he  declined  (to  consent  to  the  marriage).  He  is 
glad  that  I  have  come  to  his  assistance,  as  she  (the 
Empress)  is  too  much  for  him  in  argument."  Dr. 
Mackenzie,  who  also  was  at  Charlottenburg  at  the  time, 
remarked  of  it,  "  I  cannot  say  that  this  discussion 
produced  much  effect  on  the  Emperor." 

Bismarck  gave  Busch  instructions  to  write  an  article 
for  the  Grenzboten,  with  the  title  "  Foreign  Influence 
in  the  Empire,"  setting  forth  his  views  on  the  sug- 
gested marriage  and  attacking  the  Empress  as  tyran- 
nizing over  her  husband,  and  a  few  days  later 
expressed  in  the  Berlinger  Boersen  Zeitung  his 
abhorrence  of  the  Grenzboten  article. 

The  old  Emperor  William  had  been  as  much  against 
the  marriage  as  his  Chancellor,  but  after  his  death 
Queen  Victoria  suggested  that  the  wedding  should 
take  place  at  Windsor,  and  that  the  new  Battenberg 
couple  should  live  "  elsewhere  than  in  Germany."  The 
trousseau  was  ready,  the  day  fixed  and  almost  arrived, 
when  Alexander,  who  had  probably  realized  that  he 
would  never  again  sup  with  Prussian  officers,  or  indeed 
enter  Prussia,  and  who  had  also  most  probably  received 


a  strong  hint  from  his  prospective  brother-in-law, 
decided  that  the  world  was  not  well  lost  for  love,  and 
wrote  to  the  Crown  Princess  saying  that  he  had  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  he  could  only  marry  if  he  had 
the  consent  of  Prince  William.  There  may  have  been 
other  influences  at  work  to  cause  the  writing  of  this 
letter,  for  Victoria,  who  had  been  in  Florence  in 
March,  and  gone  thence  in  April  to  Charlottenburg, 
met  Bismarck  there.  Busch  tells  in  his  diary  what 
happened. 

"  April  28. — This  afternoon  met  Bucher.  He  said, 
smiling,  '  I  have  just  heard  a  surprising  piece  of  news. 
Grandmamma  behaved  quite  sensibly  at  Charlotten- 
burg. She  declared  the  attitude  of  the  Chief  in  the 
Battenberg  marriage  scheme  to  be  quite  correct,  and 
urged  her  daughter  to  change  her  ways.  Of  course  it 
was  very  nice  of  her  not  to  forget  her  own  country, 
and  to  wish  to  benefit  it  when  it  was  possible  for  her  to 
do  so,  but  she  needed  the  attachment  of  the  Germans, 
and  should  endeavour  to  secure  it;  and  finally  she 
brought  about  a  reconciliation  between  Prince  William 
and  his  mother.' 

"  I  asked,  '  Have  you  that  on  good  authority? ' 
'  On  very  good  authority/ 

'  Well,  that  is  satisfactory  ...  we  do  not  hate 
Victoria  on  account  of  her  extraction,  but  because  she 
feels  as  an  Englishwoman,  and  wishes  to  promote 
English  interests  at  our  expense,  and  because  she 
despises  us  Germans.' ' 

When  the  Queen  went  to  Charlottenburg  this  April, 
1888,  the  Crown  Princess  showed  some  of  that  tact- 


THE   CROWN  PRINCESS  383 

lessness  which  so  much  annoyed  the  Berliners,  for, 
wanting  to  refurnish  the  rooms  destined  for  her  mother, 
she  sent  to  England  for  all  that  she  needed,  and, 
further,  had  English  workmen  sent  over  to  do  the 
decoration.  It  was  naturally  deeply  resented,  and  it 
was  feared  that  some  hostile  demonstration  might  be 
made  against  Victoria.  This  did  not  happen,  but 
Prince  William  behaved  so  coldly  to  his  grandmother 
that  she  could  plainly  see  the  attitude  of  him  and  his 
friends. 

Yet  the  Germans  should  not  have  been  so  much  hurt, 
for  they  had  little  courtesy,  as  was  shown  once  when 
the  Crown  Princess  said  of  a  dog,  "Ah,  he  is  a 
bad  dog,  he  bit  a  child,"  and  the  prompt  response 
was,  "  Nein  Kaiserliche  Hoheit,  ein  erwachsenes 
Madchen !  " 

As  for  the  principals  in  this  marriage  question,  the 
young  Princess  Victoria  married  Prince  Adolphus  of 
Schaumberg-Lippe,  and  in  1889  Prince  Alexander 
married  when  at  Nice  an  actress,  Mile.  Losinger, 
the  daughter  of  the  valet  and  the  cook  of  the  old 
Austrian  General  Faviani.  Later  the  Prince  aban- 
doned both  title  and  status  in  favour  of  the  title  of 
Count  Hartenau,  became  a  colonel  in  an  Austrian 
regiment,  and  died  as  major-general  in  command  of  a 
brigade  at  Gratz  in  1893. 

Queen  Victoria  heard  of  his  marriage  with  sorrow 
rather  than  with  anger,  merely  saying  with  a  sigh, 
"  Perhaps  they  loved  one  another." 


CHAPTER    XXIII 

IMPERIAL    GROWTH 

"Dere's  grandma  dinks   she's  nicht  small  beer, 

Mit  Boers  und  such  she  interfere; 
She'll  learn  none  owns  dis  hemisphere, 
But  Me — und  Gott. 

She  dinks,  good  frau,  some  ships  she's  got, 

Und  soldiers  mit  der  scarlet  goat. 
Ach  !     We  could  knock  dem  !     Poof  !     Like  dot, 

Myself — mit  Gott." 

A.  McGregor  Rose.     1897. 

As  some  one  has  put  it,  under  Lord  Salisbury's 
political  guardianship  the  Queen  could  sleep  in  peace ; 
upon  him  had  fallen  the  mantle  of  Beaconsfield  so  far 
as  Victoria's  favour  went,  though,  honestly,  Salisbury 
showed  little  veneration  for  his  predecessor,  whom  he 
regarded  as  divided  from  himself  by  class  and  race. 
Salisbury  had  won  his  election  on  a  "  No  Coercion " 
cry,  thereby  securing  the  adhesion  of  the  Irish  mem- 
bers. But  he  was  an  advocate  of  tradition,  a  champion 
of  conservatism  and  aristocracy.  He  had  fought  each 
one  of  Gladstone's  reforms  with  all  his  strength, 
whether  in  the  suffrage,  the  Church  or  the  Army. 
When  Disraeli  "dished  the  Whigs"  by  bringing  in 
his  Reform  Bill  of  1867,  Salisbury  resigned  rather 
than  be  associated  with  it.  He  had  none  of  Disraeli's 

plasticity,  none  of  his  sympathy  for  the  workers  which 

384 


IMPERIAL  GROWTH  385 

made  him  once  say,  when  talking  of  the  narrow,  selfish 
ways  of  many  Whig  and  Tory  landed  proprietors  who 
made  their  class  hated  by  excluding  the  people  from 
their  parks  and  demesnes,  "  I  for  one  cannot  and  will 
not  do  anything  so  absurd/'*  But  even  one  so  steeped 
in  the  past  as  the  new  Prime  Minister  had  to  bend 
to  the  living  forces  of  the  time  and  accept  Joseph 
Chamberlain  as  a  colleague.  This  one-time  ultra- 
Radical  had  rapidly  assimilated  the  new  Imperialism; 
he  was  a  fighter,  and  power  pleased  his  senses,  and 
it  was  his  imperialism  which  made  him  refuse  to 
Ireland  what  he  had  been  so  anxious  to  give  his  own 
countrymen,  a  measure  of  justice  and  self-rule. 

The  Queen  and  her  advisers,  then,  were  in  accord, 
and  Disraeli's  cry  of  a  world-power  seemed  to  be 
taking  shape  in  fact.  Indeed,  after  her  Jubilee 
Victoria  found  herself  much  nearer  that  ideal  than 
she  had  hoped  ever  to  be  when  Beaconsfield  died. 
Princes  had  come  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe  to 
do  her  homage;  her  name  was  the  link  which  bound 
the  far  ends  of  the  earth  together. 

Yet  there  was  one  little  country  the  people  of  which 
had  refused  to  bow  the  knee  to  her  greatness,  and 
that  was  Ireland.  Starved  in  every  way,  its  manu- 
factures destroyed,  railways  refused  to  it,  its  people 
left  to  the  bitterest  oppression  of  the  exploiter,  Ireland 
stood,  sullen  and  defiant,  while  all  the  world  knelt  on 
that  fine  June  day  in  1887;  for  Ireland  regarded  its 
queen  as  its  enemy. 

Those    who    lived    in    comfort    in    England,    who 
had  no  knowledge  of  all  the  conditions  in  Ireland— 
cc 


386    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

conditions  very  different  from  those  of  Ulster — were 
aghast,  and  had  no  pity  when  the  Government 
changed  its  tactics  and  declared  for  coercion  of  the 
most  stringent  type.  Nearly  three  thousand  families 
were  cast  roofless  upon  the  roadside;  and  the  terrible 
injustice  of  Mitchelstown,  which  occurred  in  September 
1887,  leaves  a  permanent  blot  upon  the  record  of  the 
then  Irish  Secretary.  In  this  tragedy  the  slaughter 
of  three  Irishmen  was  finally  left  as  though  it  had 
been  the  slaughter  of  three  dogs,  and  it,  with  the 
evictions,  gave  birth  to  the  second  popular  English 
movement  in  favour  of  Ireland  which  has,  at  long  last, 
culminated  in  the  present  Home  Rule  Act.  For  the 
people  know,  what  biassed  rulers  will  not  recognize, 
that  unreproved  violence  by  servants  of  the  State 
means  injustice;  they  themselves  have  suffered  from 
it.  Yet  in  England  Chamberlain  was  allowed  to  gain 
for  his  countrymen  the  County  Councils  and  the 
possession  of  allotments,  while  other  isolated  reforms 
took  place  which  showed  that  the  Conservatives  were 
beginning  to  know  the  value  of  popular  support. 

The  writer  of  the  article  in  The  Quarterly  Review 
asserts  that  her  Majesty  "desired  almost  passionately 
to  be  loved  by  the  Irish";  a  statement  which  makes 
one  dumb  with  surprise,  for  during  a  reign  of  sixty- 
four  years  she  made  no  effort  to  understand  the  people 
or  their  conditions;  for  forty  years — from  1859  to 
1899 — she  refused  to  go  near  their  shores;  she  was 
always  ready  to  apply  the  rod  and  unwilling  to  give 
any  kiss  of  peace. 

If  in  the  end  she  did  desire  the  affection  of  those 


IMPERIAL  GROWTH  387 

people,  it  is  one  of  the  tragedies  of  her  life  that  she 
did  not  earlier  wake  up  to  the  possibilities  of  the  sister 
isle,  that  the  mellowing  of  her  heart  came  too  late. 
It  is  also  a  proof  that  the  Queen  Victoria  of  1899  was 
a  totally  different  person  from  the  Queen  of  1861. 
She  had  learned  at  last  to  trust  and  love  her  English 
subjects,  and  perhaps,  had  it  only  happened  earlier, 
she  would  have  found  means  to  know  and  then  to 
love  her  Irish  subjects  also.  As  it  is,  it  cannot  be  a 
matter  for  surprise  that  Queen  Victoria  never  gained 
the  love  of  the  Irish. 

For  the  fourteen  years  that  remained  to  her  from 
the  Jubilee  the  Queen  set  herself  to  secure  the  English. 
She  did  not  change  her  long-cherished  plans,  but  still 
paid  three  visits  a  year  to  Osborne,  two  to  Balmoral, 
and  a  month  abroad,  which  left  her  little  time  for 
Windsor  and  practically  none  for  London.  But 
London  had  grown  used  to  this,  and  relied  upon  the 
Princess  of  Wales  to  organize  "  the  season  "  and  so 
keep  society  going. 

On  her  journeys  Victoria  would  go  hither  and 
thither,  laying  foundation-stones,  reviewing  troops, 
opening  hospitals  and  town  halls,  christening  or 
launching  battleships,  such  as  the  Royal  Sovereign 
and  the  Royal  Arthur,  visiting  large  towns  in  England 
and  Scotland,  such  as  Manchester,  Sheffield,  Derby, 
Paisley,  Glasgow,  etc.  Bristol  also  she  went  to,  when 
the  spirit  of  love  and  forgiveness  had  become  a  habit 
with  her,  in  1899;  for  Bristol  had  been  shunned  by 
her  since  the  early  years  of  her  reign,  as  it  had  refused 
to  welcome  a  German  prince  as  her  husband.  In  1899 


388     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

she  visited  the  principality  of  Wales,  Sir  Henry 
Robertson  lending  her  Pale  Hall,  near  Lake  Bala, 
whence  she  went  to  see  the  Theodore  Martins,  who 
lived  in  the  neighbourhood. 

Sir  Theodore  Martin,  like  many  of  those  who  had 
had  much  personal  intercourse  with  their  Queen,  has 
told  much  about  her  that  it  is  pleasant  to  know;  in 
his  case  it  is  enshrined  in  a  little  volume,  Queen 
Victoria  as  I  Knew  Her.  Once,  when  at  Osborne 
on  a  wintry  January  day  he  had  hurt  his  leg  on  the 
skating-pond,  and  had  to  keep  his  room  for  a  con- 
siderable time.  As  soon  as  the  Queen  knew  of  the 
accident  she  telegraphed  for  Martin's  wife  (the  one- 
time famous  Shakespearean  actress,  Helena  Faucit), 
and  sent  the  royal  yacht  to  fetch  her.  The  next  morn- 
ing her  Majesty  went  to  see  the  injured  man,  and 
after  leaving  him  it  occurred  to  her  that  he  did  not 
look  comfortable,  so  she  sent  a  servant  with  two  large 
pillows  for  his  use.  It  was  Theodore  Martin  who,  on 
March  7,  1875,  found  the  Queen  in  tears  "and  moved 
to  a  degree  that  was  distressing  to  witness,"  for  Sir 
Arthur  Helps  had  died  from  a  chill  caught  at  the 
Prince  of  Wales's  levee.  Her  first  thought  was  for 
his  family,  and  how  the  embarrassments  from  which 
they  might  suffer  could  be  lightened. 

While  in  Wales  those  few  days  she  did  her  best  to 
charm  the  people  who  saw  her,  even  to  the  extent 
of  learning  sufficient  Welsh  to  thank  in  their  own 
language  a  party  of  men  who  presented  her  with  a 
walking-stick  of  native  wood. 

Wherever  she  went  she  pursued  an  active  policy 


IMPERIAL  GROWTH  389 

of  giving  as  well  as  receiving  pleasure,  for,  like  little 
Kay  in  the  Snow  Queen,  the  piece  of  glass  in  her  heart 
had  at  last  melted  and  she  was  again  human,  and  more 
like  the  girl-queen  of  1837  tnan  sne  had  been  since  her 
marriage. 

If  only  it  had  happened  before  those  lost  years 
were  spent  there  would  be  no  two  opinions  about 
Queen  Victoria.  As  it  was  she  had  not  time  enough 
left  her  to  catch  up  with  neglected  opportunities. 
English  jealousy  of  her  love  for  Scotland  and 
Germany  had  been  allowed  too  long  a  life  to  be 
permanently  overcome  by  her  old-age  repentance  or 
growth  of  kindliness.  Those  who  knew  her  and  whom 
she  liked,  ladies  who  received  her  charmingly  sympa- 
thetic letters  of  condolence,  still  adore  her  memory; 
a  great  proportion  of  the  nation  see  her  faults  rather 
than  her  virtues,  a  large  proportion  have  no  interest 
in  her  at  all,  and  a  few  repeat  the  old  cry  of  her  great 
goodness  and  wisdom.  On  the  whole,  judgment  about 
the  Queen  must  be  regarded  as  suspended. 

There  was  one  more  disagreeable  matter  up  to  which 
she  felt  that  she  had  to  screw  her  courage,  and  that 
was  an  endeavour  to  persuade  the  nation  to  allot  main- 
tenance to  the  third  generation  of  her  family.  These 
incidents  become  wearisome  by  repetition,  and  I  should 
like  to  pass  this  by,  but  it  has  to  be  related  that  this 
part  of  her  life  may  be  rounded  off.  Albert  Victor  was 
twenty-five  that  year,  and  Princess  Louise  of  Wales 
was  about  to  marry  the  Duke  of  Fife,  who  had  for  a 
couple  of  years  been  persona  grata  at  Court.  The  dear 
lady  had  in  England  twenty-two  grandchildren  beside, 


390    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

most  of  them  threatened  with  loss  of  income  on  the 
death  of  their  parents. 

So  once  more  the  Queen  girded  on  her  armour, 
determined  to  get  the  whole  matter  settled  at  one 
stroke,  and  asked  Salisbury  to  make  an  arrangement 
which  should  automatically  pension  each  grandchild 
as  occasion  needed,  and  hinted  that  the  same  sum 
should  be  given  to  the  second  generation  as  to  the 
first;  that  is,  ,£15,000  each  a  year  to  the  boys,  and 
£6000,  with  a  marriage  portion  of  £30,000,  to  the 
girls. 

Salisbury  could  not — indeed,  dared  not — suggest 
such  a  course,  and  the  discussion  was  started  in  Par- 
liament by  the  reading  of  the  two  messages  from  the 
Queen  concerning  Albert  Victor,  Duke  of  Clarence, 
and  the  Princess  Louise. 

At  once  all  the  old  arguments  arose,  less  noisy,  but 
stronger  and  deeper,  than  before;  for  Bradlaugh  was 
at  hand,  with  his  long-advocated  republicanism,  his 
denunciation  of  the  extravagance  and  wastefulness  of 
keeping  a  Court.  Labouchere,  too,  had  weight,  and 
John  Morley  lent  dignity  to  the  expostulations.  Brad- 
laugh  wanted  to  refer  the  whole  question  of  royal 
revenues  to  a  committee  for  reconsideration,  arguing 
that  the  royal  savings  on  the  Civil  List  would  amply 
provide  for  all  the  grandchildren.  This  amendment 
was  lost,  but  125  members  voted  for  it.  Gradually 
the  demand  was  lessened,  the  Queen  withdrawing 
those  for  her  daughters'  children,  and  then  those  for 
the  children  of  her  younger  sons;  but  at  last  it  was 
only  through  the  mediation  of  Gladstone,  who  was 


IMPERIAL  GROWTH  391 

anxious  to  save  the  Monarchy  from  any  further  criti- 
cism and  dispute,  that  the  ministers  modified  the 
proposal  to  granting  a  sum  of  £36,000  annually  to 
the  Prince  of  Wales  for  the  support  of  his  children. 
Even  this  met  with  opposition  from  the  Radicals, 
Labouchere  demanding  a  peremptory  refusal  to  the 
making  of  any  grant  to  the  grandchildren  at  all,  and 
his  amendment  to  this  effect  gained  116  supporters. 
A  further  amendment  by  John  Morley  ensuring 
finality  by  declaring  that  no  further  demands  could 
be  made  was  lost  by  355  to  134.  Lord  Selborne 
saw  in  all  this  ominous  signs  of  a  recrudescence  of 
republicanism.  It  would  have  been  more  correct  to 
have  judged  that  republicanism  had  quietly  grown 
stronger  through  the  years  owing  to  the  constant 
demands  made  by  the  sovereign,  accompanied  by  her 
neglect  of  her  people. 

Now  that  the  order  of  things  has  changed,  and 
there  is  less  royal  interference  with  the  Government, 
few  people  trouble  about  republicanism,  though  its 
theoretical  supporters  may  have  greatly  increased; 
but  the  popular  sentiment  of  independence  is  stronger 
than  ever,  and  if  any  ruler  of  Britain  suddenly 
assumed  arbitrary  power  the  Conservatives  themselves 
would  be  among  those  resenting  it;  they,  too,  would 
show  themselves  republican. 

The  grants  made  in  1889  were  subject  to  this 
restriction,  that  they  should  continue  only  until  six 
months  after  her  Majesty's  death,  for  naturally  then 
different  arrangements  would  have  to  be  made.  With 
this  conclusion  the  Queen,  though  only  half  pleased, 


392    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

declared  herself  satisfied,  and  it  is  amusing  to  note 
that  while  the  negotiations  were  pending,  and  Glad- 
stone, as  usual,  was  doing  his  best  for  his  sovereign, 
she  sent  friendly  congratulations  to  him  on  his  golden 
wedding  day;  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  did 
the  same,  accompanying  them  with  a  present. 

As  a  last  word  on  money  matters  and  the  Queen's 
ability  to  see  after  her  grandchildren  it  may  be  as  well 
to  state  what  her  income  was  at  the  time. 

The  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  which  had  been  a  neg- 
ligible factor  when  her  first  Civil  List  was  arranged, 
producing  only  £5000  a  year,  now  brought  in  £60,000, 
a  small  part  of  which  went  in  administration  of  the 
estates.  There  was  also  £60,000  from  the  Civil  List, 
and  all  the  income  from  investments  and  shares,  house 
and  landed  property  which  she  had  secured  through 
savings  on  the  Civil  List.  During  these  last  debates 
it  was  officially  stated  that  the  total  savings  on  the 
Civil  List  only  amounted  to  £824,025,  and  that  out 
of  this  much  had  been  spent  on  entertaining  foreign 
visitors;  in  fact,  the  actual  amount  which  had  been 
put  to  the  Queen's  credit  was  £653,000,  a  sum  which, 
laid  out  at  interest,  could  scarcely  be  regarded  as 
despicable.  In  addition  to  this  there  were  the  legacy 
of  a  quarter  of  a  million  left  her  by  John  Camden 
Neild,  other  smaller  legacies  from  subjects,  and  the 
sum  the  Queen  inherited  under  the  will  of  the  Prince 
Consort,  which  popular  report  said  was  nearly  a 
million  pounds,  though  this  must  have  been  a  great 
exaggeration.  Truly  Labouchere  had  some  justifica- 
tion for  inviting  the  special  committee  to  record  its 


IMPERIAL  GROWTH  898 

opinion  that  it  was  undesirable  to  prejudice  any  final 
decisions  by  granting  allowances  or  annuities  to  any 
of  the  grandchildren  of  the  sovereign. 

Sir  H.  W.  Lucy,  in  Later  Peeps  at  Parliament, 
states  that  he  was  told  by  one  in  authority  that  the 
Queen's  personality  did  not  exceed  at  her  death  the 
sum  of  800,000;  and  this  might  well  be  if  she  had 
already  made  the  promised  provision  for  her  de- 
scendants, and  she  had  certainly  done  much  for  her 
children. 

During  the  last  years  of  her  Court,  when  compara- 
tive social  gaiety  was  observed,  the  royal  household 
expenses  were  increased;  and  it  is  said  that  she  had 
become  so  mellowed  that  she  made  up  deficiencies  in 
some  departments  from  her  privy  purse.  It  was  a  pity 
that  occasional  evidences  of  generosity  were  not  given 
to  the  public  by  Victoria,  for  there  was  a  strong 
popular  belief  that  she  had  become  miserly,  which 
was  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  neither  during  the 
Jubilee  of  1887  nor  tnat  of  1897  did  she  show  any 
gratitude  for  a  long  life  of  unbounded  opportunity 
by  dispensing  money  of  her  own  in  any  good  cause. 
Her  small  habits  of  strict  economy  lasted  to  the  end 
of  her  life,  and  little  payments  for  work  done  which 
had  been  considered  adequate  in  1861  were  so  con- 
sidered in  1901. 

As  an  instance  of  this,  a  covering  cloth  was  used 
for  the  donkey  which  drew  the  Queen's  chair,  to  be 
thrown  over  him  when  standing  still,  which  cloth  was 
bound  all  round  with  black  braid.  When  the  braid 
was  worn  a  poor  woman  of  Windsor  was  employed 


394    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

to  renew  it  and  to  re-work  the  royal  monogram  in  the 
corner,  for  which  she  never  received  more  than  one 
and  sixpence.  Of  course,  a  thing  like  this  might 
never  come  to  the  personal  knowledge  of  the  Queen, 
yet  she  was  so  precise  about  details,  so  observant  of 
everything  around  her,  that  those  about  Windsor  who 
knew  of  royal  habits  would  not  believe  but  that  such 
things  were  governed  by  her  Majesty's  wishes. 

During  the  parliamentary  debate  the  tremendous 
expenditure  incurred  by  the  royal  yachts  was  again 
urged,  and  H.  W.  Lucy  gives  in  his  book  interesting 
information  concerning  three  of  them.  The  little 
Elfin,  built  at  a  charge  of  only  ,£6000  early  in  the 
reign,  cost  yearly  such  a  sum  that  in  1900  it  was 
estimated  that  £500  a  ton  had  been  spent  over  it;  a 
man-of-war  would  in  the  same  period  have  cost  £80 
a  ton.  The  Victoria  and  Albert,  built  in  1855,  cost 
originally  ,£176,820,  but,  apart  from  wages  of  the  crew 
and  supply  of  stores,  the  nation  had  subsequently  paid 
£12,000  a  year  for  it,  which  brought  the  total  expense 
to  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  million.  The  Alberta 
was  built  in  1863,  being  quickly  followed  by  the 
Osborne,  the  initial  charge  for  the  latter  being 
£134,000,  and  the  annual  expenditure  for  her  being 
£8000.  In  addition  to  this  there  was  the  Fairy.  Yet, 
possessing  all  these,  it  was  announced  in  the  papers 
late  in  1895  tnat  a  new  yacht  was  to  be  built  for  the 
Queen's  use,  assurance  being  given  that  no  attempt 
would  be  made  to  rival  the  floating  palace  of  the 
Kaiser.  As  Victoria  had  by  that  time  lost  her  nerve 
on  the  water,  this  may  not  have  been  true,  though, 


IMPERIAL  GROWTH  395 

on  the  other  hand,  it  may  have  shown  a  desire  for 
something  especially  steady  and  safe. 

The  troublesome  matter  of  the  royal  incomes  being 
at  last  swept  from  her  life,  the  Queen  turned  to  more 
stately  things.  In  August  1889  she  received  for  the 
second  time  as  a  guest  the  Shah  of  Persia,  and  later 
came  her  nephew,  William  II  of  Prussia,  on  a  visit. 

There  were  wheels  within  wheels  to  bring  about 
the  imperial  meeting.  Before  he  had  been  Kaiser  a 
month  William  had  rushed  off — without  invitation — 
to  Russia,  desiring  to  prove  not  only  his  severance 
from  England,  but  that  he  could  bring  about  the 
longed-for  Russian  entente.  He  was  not  received  too 
warmly,  and  afterwards  he  waited  in  vain  for  a  return 
visit  from  the  Tsar.  Meanwhile,  during  the  next 
twelve  months,  he  was  trying  to  prove,  first  to  himself 
and  then  to  the  world,  who  was  really  master  of 
Prussia — he  or  Bismarck.  Knowing  the  jealousy 
between  Russia  and  England  and  the  hatred  of 
Bismarck  for  all  that  was  British,  he  then  determined 
to  flout  both  the  Tsar  and  his  Chancellor  by  discover- 
ing an  elaborate  warmth  of  friendship  for  his  grand- 
mother and  her  country.  So  he  steamed  away  from 
Germany,  much  to  Bismarck's  anger,  in  his  beautiful 
yacht,  the  H ohenzollern,  at  the  head  of  a  dozen  new 
warships,  to  Portsmouth  Harbour. 

He  was  received  with  open  arms,  and  promptly 
created  an  admiral  of  the  English  Fleet,  whereupon 
he  solemnly  made  his  grandmother  a  colonel  of 
dragoons,  re-naming  the  regiment  "  The  Queen  of 
England's  Own."  He  also  held  out  the  olive  branch 


396    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

to  his  uncle  the  Prince  of  Wales  by  gazetting  him  a 
colonel  in  the  Prussian  Army.  It  was  a  merry  farce 
of  compliments  on  the  one  side,  for  the  Queen  never 
rode  at  the  head  of  her  dragoons,  nor  did  the  Prince 
of  Wales  ever  lead  his  Prussian  regiment.  The 
Emperor  regarded  his  new  honour  somewhat  differ- 
ently, for  when  he  went  to  Athens  in  the  following 
October  to  be  present  at  the  marriage  of  his  sister  with 
Prince  Constantine  of  Greece  he  steamed  into  the 
u^Egean  Sea  with  the  British  admiral's  flag  flying  at  his 
yacht's  masthead,  and  prosecuted  what  he  fancied  to 
be  the  duties  of  a  British  admiral  with  greater  zeal  than 
discretion.  For  a  British  squadron  was  in  the  bay, 
and  he  would  descend  upon  it  at  all  unearthly  hours, 
order  the  men  up  for  parade,  inspect  uniforms,  stores 
and  the  condition  of  the  ships  in  a  way  which  raised 
the  anger  of  the  officers  and  men  alike,  so  that  at  last 
a  complaint  was  sent  to  the  Admiralty  by  the  former. 
As  some  one  said,  "  If  he  would  just  wear  the  uniform 
and  let  it  end  there  we  should  not  mind;  but  we  did 
not  make  him  an  admiral  that  our  lives  might  be 
worried  out  of  us  in  this  fashion." 

William  was  by  this  and  subsequent  visits  fired  with 
fresh  enthusiasm  for  his  own  fleet,  and  cogitated 
methods  of  securing  advantage  for  it.  Thus  when 
Anglo-French-German  disputes  arose  over  territory 
in  Africa,  he  was  ready  in  1890  to  forgo  his  purely 
nominal  authority  in  Zanzibar  for  definite  possession 
of  Heligoland.  His  grandmother  could  deny  him 
nothing,  and  though  Lord  Salisbury  has  generally 
been  blamed  for  losing  this  rocky  yet  valuable  little 


IMPERIAL  GROWTH  397 

island,  the  act  was  the  Queen's,  who  did  not  suspect 
the  astuteness  of  the  policy  which  not  only  gained  for 
Germany  a  much  stronger  naval  base,  but  ousted  the 
British  from  a  spot  too  near  to  Kiel.  And  the  Ger- 
mans say  now  that  this  European  war  of  1914  and  1915 
could  never  have  taken  place  but  for  the  possession 
of  Heligoland ! 

It  is  forgivable  to  feel  some  satisfaction  in  knowing 
that  that  hard  man  Bismarck,  who  had  cast  off  so 
many,  friend  and  foe  alike,  when  he  could  squeeze 
nothing  more  out  of  them,  went  begging  at  the  last 
to  the  woman  whose  life  he  had  done  his  best  to 
mar,  the  Empress  Frederick,  not  knowing  that  she  had 
helped  in  his  undoing.  Finding  that  her  son  was 
rebelling  against  the  autocracy  of  his  Chancellor,  she 
had  drawn  him  once  more  under  the  influence  of  his 
old  tutor  Hinzpeter,  whose  whole  nature  was  opposed 
to  the  ruthlessness  of  Bismarck ;  and  so  she  had  helped 
to  make  the  breach  final.  Bismarck,  catching  at  every 
straw,  went  so  far  as  to  inspire  an  article  in  one  of  our 
great  "  dailies  "  upon  the  admiration  he  felt  for  the 
Empress;  and  he  went  to  ask  her  intercession,  remind- 
ing her  of  a  service  he  had  done  her — though  he  did 
not  recall  that  it  was  at  her  husband's  orders — two 
years  earlier.  She,  whom  he  had  persecuted  for  more 
than  thirty  years,  whose  home  he  had  filled  with  his 
spies,  whose  son  he  had  alienated,  whose  adopted 
country  he  had  turned  in  hatred  against  her,  could  do 
nothing  to  soften  the  blow  to  him. 

In  this  crisis  Bismarck  knew  no  reticence.  He 
showed  only  too  plainly  his  mortification,  and  loudly 


398    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

demanded  that  every  one  should  know  that  he  went 
from  his  post  against  his  will.  Visitors  who  called 
to  take  leave  of  him  were  entertained  by  Princess 
Bismarck's  denunciations  of  the  Kaiser — 

'  The  brat,  the  stupid  brat !  "  she  cried  over  and 
over  again. 

Punch  published  its  noted  cartoon  of  "  Dropping 
the  Pilot,"  which  highly  delighted  William,  and  Bis- 
marck said  bitterly  that  the  Kaiser  saw  in  it  a  justifica- 
tion of  his  action. 

Though  the  Kaiser  revisited  England  every  year 
until  1896  he  was  already  meditating  how  and  when 
he  could  use  his  new  fleet,  and  keeping  a  sharp  eye 
on  Africa,  ready  to  pounce  upon  any  chance  of  a 
colony.  As  an  American,  Pulteney  Bigelow,  said  in 
1891,  "Germany  waits  from  day  to  day  to  mobilize 
her  troops  and  march  to  the  frontier."  From  that 
time  for  five  years  William  was  intriguing  in  South 
Africa,  and  Europe  looked  on  with  some  amusement, 
for  Britain  had  been  so  successful  in  land-grabbing 
that  a  little  trouble  for  her  was  regarded  as  legitimate. 
Great  Britain  claimed  suzerainty  over  the  Transvaal, 
but  the  Kaiser  practically  recognized  its  independence, 
in  spite  of  the  Pretoria  Convention  of  1881  and  the 
London  Convention  of  1884.  In  the  troubles  which 
followed  Germany  was  regarded  as  the  warm  friend 
of  the  Boers,  and  a  banquet  was  given  among  the 
leading  Boers  in  honour  of  the  Kaiser's  birthday  in 
January  1895,  at  which  Kruger  referred  in  glowing 
words  to  William,  saying  that  the  friendship  of  Ger- 
many for  his  nation  would  in  the  future  be  more  firmly 


IMPERIAL  GROWTH  399 

established  than  ever.  There  is  no  doubt  that, 
England  being  the  one  whom  Kruger  hated,  he 
expected  the  help  of  William  in  getting  rid  of  its 
control.  The  knowledge  of  this  reached  England,  of 
course,  and  Chamberlain  felt  it  necessary  to  announce 
that  the  conventions  would  be  adhered  to,  and  in  May 
Tongoland  and  Kosi  Bay  were  annexed,  which  shut 
the  Boers  from  the  sea.  This  may  seem  arbitrary, 
but  though  the  Boers  had  long  had  the  chance  of 
securing  Kosi  Bay  they  had  refused  to  comply  with 
the  necessary  conditions.  The  result  of  this  was  that 
England  and  Portugal  joined  up  on  the  east  coast  of 
Africa  at  a  point  which  the  Germans  were  beginning 
to  consider  specially  necessary  to  themselves,  and  the 
annexation  was  made  specially  to  prevent  Germany 
from  having  a  spot  at  which  she  could  land  troops 
in  aid  of  the  Boers,  and  where  she  could  secure  the 
rights  over  the  Delagoa  railway. 

William  made  overtures  to  Russia  to  aid  him  in 
his  championship  of  the  Boers,  and  Russia  turned  her 
back  on  him;  France  refused  to  become  ally  to  her 
enemy,  so  he  approached  Portugal,  haughtily  demand- 
ing that  his  troops  should  land  in  Delagoa  Bay  on 
their  way  to  Pretoria.  And  he  did  all  this,  imagining 
that  at  his  word  Britain  would  waive  her  suzerainty 
over  the  Transvaal,  although  more  than  half  the 
inhabitants  were  European,  possessing  nine-tenths  of 
the  country's  wealth  and  half  the  land. 

The  cause  of  dispute  between  the  Boers  and  the 
Uitlanders,  or  Europeans,  was  comprehensible  enough. 
The  Boers  cared  nothing  for  gold,  diamonds  or  mines ; 


400    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

they  wanted  to   farm  their   land   and  to   be  left  in 
peace  and  in  patriarchal  family  squalor.     Europeans 
insisted  upon  digging  mines,  making  railways,   and 
otherwise  upsetting  the  land-dwellers;  so  the  latter 
put  every  possible  difficulty  in  the  way  of  the  former. 
To  the  English  land-grabber  in  distant  lands  rights 
of  property  do  not  exist,  except  for  himself,  and  it 
cannot  be  expected  that  he  should  be  treated  gently. 
The  Boers  did  what  they  could  to  protect  themselves  : 
they  allowed  the  strangers  no  political  rights,  seeing 
a  definite  swamping  for  themselves  if  they  did  so; 
they    secured    monopolies    of    all    important    things 
necessary  for  the  miners,  such  as  fuel,  petrol,  etc., 
and  made  their  enemies  pay  through  the  nose;  they 
taxed  the  Uitlanders  to  extinction,  allowed  them  no 
schools  for  their  children,  and  bound  them  so  tightly 
hand  and  foot  as  to  make  their  lives  unbearable.     I 
am  stating  facts,  not  upholding  ethics  for  one  side  or 
the  other.     This  struggle,  pushed  to  extremes,  could 
only   end    in   war,    and    Cecil    Rhodes,    then    Prime 
Minister  of  Cape  Colony,  made  the  first  move  towards 
the  reopening  of  the  conflict  which  had  been  closed 
by  Gladstone  in  1883.     He,  with  Dr.  Jameson  and 
Alfred  Beit,  laid  a  plan  of  invasion,  by  which  the  two 
latter   were   to   cross   the   border   and   join   up   with 
Uitlanders  in  Johannesburg.      Delay  was,  however, 
necessary,    as   arms   and   men   were    not   ready,   but 
Jameson  had  the  adventure  in  his  blood  and  started 
against  orders.     He  and  his  men  fell  into  the  Boers' 
hands,  and  the  Jameson  Raid  was  a  foregone  failure. 
Upon  this  the  Queen's  grandson  William  sent  an 


IMPERIAL  GROWTH  401 

open  telegram  to  Kruger  congratulating  him  that 
*'  without  appealing  to  the  help  of  friendly  Powers " 
he  had  repelled  the  invasion.  Of  course,  every  one 
knew  that  he  meant  himself  by  "  friendly  Powers," 
and  England  was  wild  with  anger  against  him  over 
this  folly,  so  the  Queen  wrote  her  beloved  young 
relative  a  stiff  letter,  such  as  she  could  write  when 
moved,  pointing  out  that  his  interference  in  South 
Africa  would  most  assuredly  mean  war.  As  William 
was  not  then  ready  for  war  he  climbed  down,  ordered 
his  newspapers  to  explain  the  incident  away  and 
express  surprise  that  the  English  Press  should  have 
made  so  much  over  so  little.  When  Kruger  went  to 
Berlin  later,  and  for  the  second  time,  William  refused 
to  see  him. 

From  that  point  there  was  some  bitterness  between 
Victoria  and  the  Kaiser,  though  both  of  them  diplo- 
matically tried  to  hide  that  fact.  When  returning 
from  Nice  that  spring  Victoria  came  through  Ger- 
many, that  she  might  meet  her  grandson  and  assure 
him  that  her  neglect  to  return  his  visits  was  not  due 
to  indifference,  as  he  had  suggested;  but  she  did  not 
go  to  Berlin.  William,  on  his  part,  sent  her  a  present 
in  the  summer,  perhaps  with  a  sly  hint  of  menace 
behind  it ;  for  it  took  the  form  of  a  fountain  fashioned 
as  an  eagle  flapping  its  wings,  the  water  issuing 
through  its  beak  so  that  it  looked  as  though  flying 
through  spray.  It  was  set  up  in  a  little  garden  near 
another  fountain  presented  by  Emperor  William  I, 
and  one  feels  that  the  Prussian  eagle  seemingly  flying 
through  Windsor  gardens  was  somewhat  ominous. 


D    D 


402    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Kaiser  William  did  not  come  to  England  again 
until  1899,  and  it  has  been  said  that  he  never  came 
without  squeezing  something  out  of  his  grandmother. 
That  year  he  obtained  an  island  in  the  Samoan  group 
— probably  with  a  view  to  making  raids  on  Australia 
and  New  Zealand.  The  cartoonists  got  to  work  over 
this,  and  Figaro  gave  a  picture  of  the  Queen  cutting 
for  him  a  large  slice  off  a  plum  pudding  named  the 
World,  William,  dressed  as  a  sailor,  running  eagerly 
for  it.  Another  drawing  showed  him  wiping  her  eyes 
with  a  handkerchief  labelled  Delagoa  Bay,  while  out 
of  his  pocket  protruded  a  treaty  with  the  word  Samoa 
upon  it. 

Cecil  Rhodes  came  to  London  in  1896  to  face  the 
music  caused  by  the  Jameson  raid,  and  a  great  speech 
was  expected;  but  four  days  later  he  left,  having  said 
no  word  in  public.  During  that  short  period  he  was 
summoned  to  Windsor.  It  was  the  second  time  that 
he  had  had  an  audience  of  the  Queen.  The  first 
time  was  in  1891,  when  he  dined  and  slept  at 
Windsor  and  had  a  long  talk  with  her  Majesty  over 
South  African  affairs,  during  which  she  showed  an 
astonishingly  intimate  knowledge  of  the  country. 
After  he  had  gone  some  one  remarked  to  the  Queen 
that  he  was  a  great  woman-hater,  upon  which  she 
replied,  with  her  delightful  simplicity — I  hope  she 
felt  a  touch  of  humour  in  making  such  a  reply — "  Oh, 
he  was  very  kind  to  me  !  " 

To  the  second  interview  Rhodes  went  in  "  a  state 
of  awful  funk,"  says  Mr.  Harry  Furniss  in  his  book, 
Harry  Furniss  at  Home;  but  he  received  only  a  mild 


IMPERIAL  GROWTH  403 

remonstrance,  much  to  his  surprise,  for  he  had  ex- 
pected a  severe  scolding,  and  he  looked  uncommonly 
relieved.  The  Queen  in  her  heart  was  glad  that  the 
South  African  matter  was  being  reopened,  and  that 
at  last  there  was  a  chance  of  reversing  the  earlier 
policy. 

There  is  a  story  of  another  South  African  million- 
aire, evidently  a  German,  being  received  by  Victoria, 
to  whom  she  said — 

"  Sind  sie  ein  Baier?  " 

He,  being  confused  and  perhaps  not  expecting  to 
be  addressed  in  German,  replied,  "  Not  at  present 
prices,  ma'am." 

In  1898  there  occurred  a  new  cause  of  trouble 
between  the  English  Court  and  the  Kaiser,  one  which 
is  not  likely  to  appear  in  the  history  books.  When 
Duke  Ernst  of  Saxe-Coburg  died  in  1893  the  Queen's 
second  son,  Alfred,  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  took  pos- 
session of  the  little  German  principality  and  went  to 
live  there,  giving  up  the  allowance  of  £15,000  made 
by  our  Parliament,  but  retaining  the  extra  £10,000 
allotted  to  him  on  his  marriage.  He  had  one  son, 
Alfred,  who  would  have  succeeded  him  had  he  not 
fallen  into  the  Kaiser's  power. 

From  the  day  he  ascended  his  throne  the  Kaiser 
assumed  despotic  authority  over  all  his  relations, 
interfering  in  their  domestic  affairs  and  ordering  their 
goings  out  and  their  comings  in.  One  instance  of 
this  is  fairly  well  known.  Princess  Frederick  Leopold, 
sister  to  the  present  Kaiserin,  went  skating  with  only 
one  lady  in  attendance,  and,  getting  on  to  thin  ice, 


404     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

fell  in,  being  promptly  rescued.  William,  on  hearing 
of  it,  immediately  ordered  the  punishment  of  Prince 
Frederick  for  allowing  his  wife  so  much  liberty. 
Neither  Prince  nor  Princess  was  allowed  to  leave 
their  house  for  a  certain  number  of  days,  and  all  lights 
were  to  be  put  out  in  their  rooms  at  eight  o'clock 
every  evening,  as  though  they  were  two  naughty 
children. 

When  he  found  that  a  young  cousin  of  his  own 
was  to  live  in  Coburg,  William  demanded  that  the 
education  of  the  boy  should  be  given  over  to  him, 
and  had  him  brought  to  Berlin  away  from  his  family. 
Once  having  Alfred  there,  he  placed  him  in  a  military 
circle  and  forgot  him.  No  motherly  or  fatherly  control 
was  exercised  by  the  Imperial  couple,  and  being  left 
entirely  to  his  own  devices  he  got  into  bad  company, 
was  fleeced  by  gamblers,  slipped  heavily  into  debt, 
and  lost  both  his  reputation  and  his  health.  Learning 
something  of  all  this,  the  Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg  went 
to  Berlin  and  plucked  his  son  away  into  what  he  hoped 
was  safety.  It  was  too  late,  however;  the  young  man 
died  shortly  after,  in  February  1899,  at  Meran,  of 
phthisis.  So  says  the  biographer,  but  the  report  at 
the  time  was  that  he  had  shot  himself. 

An  heir  being  needed  for  the  Saxe-Coburg  throne, 
the  Duke  of  Connaught  was  named.  At  first  he 
accepted  the  prospect,  but  on  second  thoughts,  and 
considering  his  own  young  son  in  connection  with 
his  Prussian  nephew's  peculiarities,  he  decided  that 
the  risk  was  too  great;  and  so  he,  with  the  Queen's 
strong  approval,  refused  the  chance  of  reigning  over 


IMPERIAL  GROWTH  405 

his  father's  country.  Connaught  had  been  Victoria's 
favourite  son  since  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Albany, 
and  she  wished  to  lose  him  as  little  as  she  wished 
another  grandson  to  share  the  fate  of  Alfred.  Eventu- 
ally the  boy  Duke  of  Albany  was  appointed  heir, 
there  being  then  every  reason  to  hope  that  it  would 
be  many  years  before  he  would  take  his  place  in 
Germany.  To-day  he  is  fighting  against  those  who 
nurtured  and  brought  him  up. 

There  was  another  prince  who,  for  the  same  reason, 
held  aloof  from  Berlin,  and  that  was  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  who,  but  for  Bismarck,  would  have  been 
King  of  Hanover.  Because  he  had  no  wish  to  see 
his  son  delivered  over  to  the  mercies  of  the  Kaiser 
he  resolutely  refused  all  Prussian  invitations  to  forgive 
the  injury  of  1866. 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

NEARLY    AN    AUTOCRAT 

"Through  it  all  stood  out  his  old  conservatism  in  the  truest 
sense  of  the  word  :  his  devotion  to  old  traditions  and  constitu- 
tional forms ;  his  loyalty  to  the  Crown ;  while  with  this  devotion 
was  joined  a  courtesy  most  reverential  to  the  Queen  and  an 
affection  for  the  royal  family  which  was  most  touching. "- 
'Recollections,  1832  to  1886.'  By  the  Right  Hon.  Sir 
Algernon  West,  K.C.B. 

"  I  observe  that  it  is  now  universally  the  fashion  to  speak  of 
the  first  personage  in  the  state  as  the  great  obstacle  of  the 
measure." — 'Peter  Plymley's  Letters.'  By  Sydney  Smith. 

FOR  six  years  the  Queen  was  happy  politically,  and 
then  a  new  Government  was  elected  with  a  Liberal 
and  Irish  majority  of  forty  only.  It  was  most  discon- 
certing to  Victoria,  who,  hoping  against  hope  that 
something  might  happen  to  save  the  situation,  com- 
manded Lord  Salisbury  not  to  resign  until  Parliament 
met.  So  he  submitted  himself  to  the  inevitable  pass- 
ing in  the  House  of  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence,  and 
the  next  morning  must  have  read  in  the  Court  Circular 
with  some  surprise,  as  did  the  rest  of  the  world,  that 
the  Queen  accepted  his  resignation  "  with  great  regret." 
In  one  sense  she  never  could  remember  that  she  was 
Queen  not  only  of  the  Conservatives  but  of  all  Eng- 
lish people,  or  if  she  remembered  it  she  was  indifferent 

to  the  anger  which  such  acts  as  these  raised  among 

406 


NEARLY  AN  AUTOCRAT  407 

half  her  subjects.  This  Parliament  lasted  only  three 
and  a  half  years,  until  June  1895,  and  it  accomplished 
little,  though  never  had  more  strenuous  labour  or  more 
careful  thought  been  given  to  the  affairs  of  the  country. 
The  man  in  the  street  knew  that  the  Queen  would 
welcome  anything  which  would  render  that  labour  and 
thought  ineffective,  and  expressed  himself  in  elation  or 
bitter  disgust  according  to  the  side  he  took ;  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Commons  knew  exactly  what  her  feelings 
were,  and  opposition  became  simply  obstruction,  any 
trick  of  noise  or  subtlety  being  resorted  to  face  down 
the  Ministry  or  discredit  the  ministers. 

The  Lords  were  almost  at  the  pinnacle  of  their  pride, 
and  felt  that  the  real  power  of  government  lay  in  their 
hands.  The  Home  Rule  Bill  passed  its  third  reading 
in  the  Commons  by  a  small  majority  of  thirty-four, 
which  gave  them  their  coveted  opportunity.  We  still 
call  it  a  fight  over  Home  Rule,  but  in  reality  Home 
Rule  mattered  little  except  as  a  symbol.  It  was  an 
elemental  fight  between  Imperial-Jingoism  and  reason, 
between  pride  of  dominance  and  love  of  force  on  the 
one  hand  and  progressive  tendency  on  the  other. 
Queen  Victoria  had,  in  fact,  lost  her  balance  over 
Gladstone,  seeing  in  him  a  wolf  waiting  to  gobble 
up  her  kingdom,  and  so  she  deliberately  set  herself 
at  the  head  of  a  party — her  party.  She  had  never 
been  reticent  about  those  whom  she  liked  or  disliked, 
and  she  plainly  told  every  one  whom  she  spoke  with 
or  wrote  to,  what  she  thought  of  the  bill  and  its  pro- 
jector. She  led  the  Church,  the  Army,  the  Conserva- 
tives, all  whose  ideals  were  of  dominance  and  power; 


and  the  Lords,  dear  people,  realized  with  exhilaration 
that  for  once  they  had  a  free  hand,  that  no  diplomacy 
of  compromise  or  mediation  would  be  resorted  to  this 
time  by  their  sovereign.  They  seized  the  occasion 
with  joy,  and  when  this  Home  Rule  Bill,  this  figment 
of  things  of  much  greater  moment,  passed  into  their 
hands,  they  incontinently  slew  it,  and,  to  quote  from 
a  nonsense  rhyme,  "  cast  its  reeking  fragments  on 
the  air." 

What  revellings  there  were,  and  what  language  !  I 
remember  being  told  over  the  breakfast-table — not  my 
own — by  an  avowed  upholder  of  Church  and  State, 
that  if  he  could  only  sit  there  and  watch  Gladstone's 
body  hanging  from  the  tree  before  his  window  he 
would  be  happy,  and  would  thoroughly  enjoy  his 
breakfast.  His  eye  gleamed  with  desire  as  he  spoke. 
He  was  a  type  of  the  extremist  party  in  the  struggle. 
One  proof  that  this  struggle  had  nothing  in  reality 
to  do  with  Home  Rule  was  that  this  excess  of  feeling 
was  evoked  not  only  by  the  mention  of  Ireland,  but  by 
the  mere  name  of  Gladstone,  and  in  connection  with 
every  act  of  his  Government.  Thus  an  Employer's 
Liability  Bill  in  cases  of  accident,  and  a  parish  council 
measure,  both  of  them  of  great  importance,  were  as 
bitterly  withstood  as  the  Irish  Bill,  and  thrown  out  by 
the  Lords  in  the  same  way.  These  unreasoning  acts 
were  the  beginning  of  the  downfall  of  the  Lords. 

Gladstone  had  overcome  the  opposition  in  the 
Commons  with  his  marvellous  gifts  of  rhetoric  and 
reason,  but  he  could  do  nothing  with  the  Lords,  and 
the  Queen  saw  with  joy  that  she  was  now  strong  enough 


NEARLY  AN  AUTOCRAT  409 

to  do  what  she  liked,  that  at  long  last  she,  and  not  her 
Parliament,  was  the  real  ruler  of  England. 

Henceforth  the  people  allowed  this  position,  though 
they  did  not  recognize  it  openly,  and  for  this  there  were 
several  causes.  At  the  beginning  of  Queen  Victoria's 
reign  her  sex  had  acted  powerfully  in  awakening  a 
chivalry  which  allowed  to  a  woman  that  which  would 
be  resented  in  a  man.  She  was  weak,  therefore  she 
must  be  defended.  This  general  feeling  flagged 
under  Albert,  and  flagged  still  more  strongly  in  those 
years  of  her  widowhood  when  she  showed  herself 
independent  of  anything  her  subjects  might  say,  do, 
or  ask.  But  the  knowledge,  forced  into  the  people's 
minds  at  the  Jubilee,  that  now  she  was  old,  revived 
the  ancient  indulgent  spirit.  We  all  give  way  to  age, 
to  those  who  have  not  long  to  live;  we  want  them  to 
be  happy,  and  ourselves  to  escape  the  remorse  which 
would  later  arrive  if  we  thwarted  their  wishes. 

A  second  strong  reason  was  the  glamour  of  Impe- 
rialism or  Jingoism  which  affected  the  greater  part  of 
the  nation,  including  many  Liberals  and  Democrats. 
Those  who  disagreed  with  it  saw  its  weakness,  and 
believed  it  to  be  but  a  spurious  form  of  patriotism 
which  bore  within  it  the  seeds  of  its  own  destruction. 
They  knew  that  though  the  Government  of  the  country 
was  in  the  hands  of  Liberals,  half  the  nation  had 
become  drunk  with  this  belief  in  their  own  share  of 
imperial  greatness,  and  that  nothing  was  to  be  done 
until  the  fit  had  worn  itself  out.  How  much  the  annual 
visit  of  the  German  Emperor  pandered  to  this  senti- 
ment cannot  be  judged,  but  it  certainly  had  a  large 


410    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

influence  upon  the  Queen,  and  some  upon  her  people. 
The  very  children  in  the  schools  were  unfailingly 
taught  that  they  were  members  of  the  most  glorious 
nation  upon  earth,  one  upon  which  the  sun  never  set. 
This  self-glorification  rose  until  it  became  almost  a 
frenzy  in  1897,  tne  vear  °f  tne  Diamond  Jubilee.  Yet 
no  one  feared  over-much  for  the  English  Constitution, 
for  all  knew  that  the  ebullience  could  not  last  long, 
it  might  end  this  year  or  next,  soon  any  way,  for  its 
strength  would  evaporate  directly  Victoria  left  this 
world  for  another. 

By  July  1892  Gladstone  had  lost  the  sight  of  one 
eye,  and  the  other  was  affected ;  his  hearing,  also,  was 
bad,  and  he  knew  that  he  could  not  retain  office  long. 
But  he  did  not  resign  on  Home  Rule,  the  two  causes 
which  led  to  that  event  in  March  1894  being  his 
health  and  the  opposition  he  felt  to  the  heavy  Naval 
Estimates  in  the  new  Budget.  Those  who  insisted 
upon  them  probably  already  had  cause  to  suspect  the 
designs  of  Germany,  but  Gladstone  felt  them  to  be  a 
menace  of  war.  "  I  have  always  advocated  and  worked 
for  peace.  I  cannot  change  that  attitude,"  he  said. 

He  wrote  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  tell  him  of  his 
intended  resignation,  and  the  Prince  responded  with 
a  charming  letter  of  appreciation  and  kindliness,  in- 
cluding Mrs.  Gladstone's  name.  Arthur  Balfour,  his 
opponent  in  the  House,  spoke  of  the  nation's  debt  of 
gratitude  to  him  in  fostering  and  keeping  alive  the 
great  traditions  of  the  House  of  Commons.  But 
Queen  Victoria  had  no  kindly  farewell  greeting  for 
her  aged  minister,  no  word  of  thanks  for  his  long  and 


NEARLY  AN  AUTOCRAT  411 

warm  loyalty  to  her  personally  and  to  the  Throne,  nor 
did  she  show  any  recognition  that  by  his  social 
measures  he  had  saved  England  from  a  possible  revo- 
lution in  1867,  and  gradually  leavened  the  workers 
with  some  of  his  own  loyalty.  She  was  determined  not 
to  ask  him  herself  for  any  advice  or  information  as  to 
his  successor,  for  she  had  already  chosen  the  man,  yet 
she  badly  wanted  to  know  what  he  thought  would  be 
the  attitude  of  the  members  towards  her  choice.  So 
she  tried  to  elude  this  difficulty  by  instructing  General 
Ponsonby  to  waylay  Gladstone  before  her  interview 
with  him  and  find  out  what  he  thought.  There  was 
to  be  a  Privy  Council  in  the  morning,  so  as  soon  as 
Gladstone  arrived  for  that  Ponsonby  met  him  and 
plied  him  with  questions.  When  Gladstone  saw  to 
what  these  questions  were  tending,  he  said  that  all  his 
thoughts,  were  at  the  command  of  the  Queen,  but  it 
must  be  at  her  command,  otherwise  his  lips  were  sealed. 
As  Sir  Henry  had  not  been  ordered  to  divulge  that 
command,  the  information  was  not  given. 

When  in  the  afternoon  queen  and  minister  met, 
most  of  the  talk  was  of  eyes  and  ears,  German  versus 
English  oculists,  Victoria  being  emphatic  as  to  the 
superiority  of  the  German  over  the  English,  as  was  her 
usual  opinion  over  the  attainments  of  the  two  nations. 
So  they  parted,  the  Queen  so  cold  and  indifferent  that 
those  about  her  were  as  much  distressed  as  those  who 
cared  for  the  old  man.  So  aloof  was  she  that,  after 
sixty-three  years  service,  Gladstone  could  not  even 
offer  his  loyalty  and  best  wishes. 

"  A   departing  servant  has  some  title   to   offer  his 


412    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

hopes  and  prayers  for  the  future ;  but  a  servant  is  one 
who  has  done,  or  tried  to  do,  service  in  the  past,"  he 
said  sadly,  afterwards. 

When  he  left  her  he  found  the  Empress  Frederick 
outside  waiting  to  say  good-bye  to  him,  with  a  friendly 
clasp  of  the  hand,  giving  him  "  a  most  kind  and  warm 
farewell."  The  next  day  he  received  from  the  Queen 
a  note  in  answer  to  the  written  resignation  he  had  left 
in  her  hands,  and  in  it  she  hoped  that  he  would  have 
rest  and  quiet,  adding  that  she  would  have  offered  him 
a  peerage,  but  that  she  knew  he  would  not  accept  it, 
which  was  rather  a  neat  way  of  now  withholding  it. 
Twice  she  had  offered  him  this  dignity,  hoping  by  that 
means  to  secure  his  removal  from  the  lower  House,  and 
twice  he  had  refused  it  because  his  work  was  not  done. 
Now  that  his  reason  for  refusal  no  longer  existed,  the 
Queen  was  adroit  enough  to  use  it  as  though  still  in 
force.  Not  that  there  is  any  evidence  that  he  would 
even  then  have  welcomed  it. 

Gladstone  praised  her  sincerity,  but  her  attitude 
wanted  greatness  and  dignity. 

I  remember  hearing  many  stories  at  the  time  in- 
tended to  show  how  little  honour  she  ever  paid  Glad- 
stone, stories  of  her  keeping  him  waiting  alone  for 
hours  when  he  went  to  consult  her,  and  showing  slights 
in  other  ways,  for  Liberals  were  greatly  incensed  with 
her  over  what  they  regarded  as  her  Georgian  manners ; 
and  she  quite  sufficiently  resembled  her  forbears  to 
show  her  feelings  in  this  way.  It  is  open  to  wonder 
if  she  hated  her  statesman  as  much  as  the  lady  who 
was  dying  and  whose  doctor  thought  the  only  chance 


NEARLY  AN  AUTOCRAT  413 

of  her  recovery  was  to  administer  a  mental  shock.  So, 
knowing  her  opinions,  he  shouted  into  her  ear  the 
one  word,  "  Gladstone  !  "  "  Wretch  !  "  she  cried  and 
recovered. 

Victoria  chose  as  Prime  Minister  one  from  whom  she 
thought  she  would  have  nothing  to  fear  in  regard  to 
the  doings  in  either  House  or  measures  of  Reform — 
Lord  Rosebery,  whose  mother  had  been  one  of  the 
Queen's  bridesmaids  and  whose  grandmother  had  been 
a  member  of  the  first  Household  of  the  reign.  Yet 
under  him  the  Welsh  Disestablishment  Bill  passed 
its  second  reading,  and  the  Duke  of  Cambridge  was 
induced  to  resign  at  last  his  office  as  commander- 
in-chief.  Neither  event  pleased  the  Queen,  who, 
however,  hoped  that  she  would  be  able  to  keep  the 
army  post  still  in  her  family. 

Her  military  enthusiasm  increased  rather  than  dimin- 
ished as  she  became  old,  and  nearly  all  her  public 
appearances  were  connected  in  some  way  with  army 
matters,  reviews,  military  exhibitions  and  visits  to 
Aldershot.  In  January  1893,  when  Sir  Evelyn  Wood 
was  giving  up  the  command  at  Aldershot,  it  was 
reported  that  her  Majesty  was  personally  anxious  that 
he  should  be  succeeded  by  her  third  son,  the  Duke  of 
Connaught.  With  this  rumour  was  for  months  fitfully 
busy,  until  early  in  August  the  Duke  of  Connaught 
caused  a  contradiction  to  be  published,  in  deference 
to  the  strictures  made  upon  "one  of  the  crying  evils 
of  our  present  system,  which  pitchforks  royalty  on  to 
posts  which  it  never  would  occupy  otherwise,"  etc.,  to 
quote  newspaper  comments.  A  few  days  later  his 


414    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

contradiction  was  contradicted  from  headquarters,  and 
he  took  the  command.  From  that  time  the  Queen  was 
frequently  at  Aldershot,  even  staying  there  for  two 
days  on  one  occasion.  When  the  Duke  of  Cambridge 
resigned  she  confidently  expected  that  her  son  would 
be  made  commander-in-chief,  but  in  this  matter  her 
hopes  were  not  realized.  One  wonders  whether  they 
would  have  been  under  Lord  Salisbury.  In  1888, 
under  his  Ministry,  an  endeavour  had  been  made  to 
invest  the  post  with  far  wider  and  more  responsible 
powers,  most  probably  to  meet  the  Queen's  desire  that 
her  personal  deputy  should  be  given  the  entire  control 
of  the  army,  a  most  dangerous  thing  for  the  country, 
when  the  deputy  was  chosen  by  favour  and  because 
he  was  a  royal  relative,  and  without  any  regard  for  his 
military  career  or  ability.  The  whole  responsibility 
for  army  matters  and  military  duties  of  every  kind  was 
then  centred  in  the  commander-in-chief. 

This  act,  intended  as  a  final  declaration  of  the 
Queen's  supreme  control  of  the  army,  led  to  the 
sweeping  away  of  the  whole  fiction.  Its  nineteenth- 
century  resuscitation  in  England  had  been  caused  by 
the  German  training  of  Prince  Albert,  or  rather  by  the 
behind-the-throne  exhortations  of  Stockmar,  though 
among  us  it  had  been  dead  for  centuries,  and  it  was  a 
definite  and  threatening  step  towards  despotic  power, 
being  an  integral  part  of  the  "  divine  right  "  belief. 

The  Duke  of  Cambridge  was  no  longer  young,  and 
could  not  possibly  carry  out  the  duties  which  this 
change  demanded  of  him.  It  meant  excessive  central- 
ization in  his  hands,  and  the  weakening  of  respon- 


NEARLY  AN  AUTOCRAT  415 

sibility  and  efficiency  among  the  heads  of  departments. 
If  it  had  been  persisted  in  it  must  have  practically 
destroyed  the  army,  for  the  time  had  even  then  long 
passed  when  one  brain  could  keep  a  country's  army  fit 
for  all  emergencies.  So  reorganization  took  place,  and 
the  Government  decided  to  put  an  able  soldier  at 
the  nominal  head  of  military  affairs,  choosing  Lord 
Wolseley,  and  strictly  limiting  the  term  of  office  to 
five  years.  So  passed  from  England — it  is  to  be 
hoped  for  ever — this  trace  of  German  militarism. 

To  compensate  her  cousin  for  his  loss  of  public 
position  the  Queen  made  him  her  first  personal  aide- 
de-camp,  with  the  right  of  attending  her  on  all  military 
occasions  and  of  holding  the  parade  on  her  birthday. 
As  commander-in-chief  he  had  done  his  best  accord- 
ing to  his  knowledge  and  training,  and  at  his  age,  the 
same  as  that  of  Victoria,  he  must  have  been  ready  to 
give  way  to  a  younger  man  with  more  modern  views. 
He  retained  many  other  posts,  among  them  being 
Ranger  of  Hyde  Park  (since  1852),  also  of  St.  James's 
Park,  and  of  Richmond  Park;  indeed,  one  of  his 
nicknames  with  the  public  was  "  George  Ranger." 

The  appointment  of  Lord  Rosebery  as  Prime 
Minister  had  not  been  popular,  even  in  his  own  party, 
for  many  resented  the  placing  of  a  peer  in  the  supreme 
position  in  the  Commons,  and  his  Ministry  was  de- 
feated in  June  1895,  Lord  Salisbury  again  coming  into 
office,  with  Joseph  Chamberlain  as  Colonial  Secretary. 
From  that  time  to  her  death  the  Queen  was  happy 
politically. 

She  even  more  closely  associated  herself  now  with 


416    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

military  matters  than  before;  she  talked  army,  and 
praised  army  life  in  a  way  that  was  truly  Germanic; 
so  much  so  that  Henry  of  Battenberg  became  incul- 
cated with  military  fervour.  Princess  Beatrice  had 
had  several  children,  the  second  being  born  in  1887, 
Victoria  being  reported  to  have  strongly  desired  that 
its  name  should  be  Jubilee.  The  home  of  the  Batten-- 
bergs was  still  at  Windsor,  or  Osborne,  or  Balmoral, 
though  there  were  suggestions  that  a  separate  estab- 
lishment should  be  formed;  and  this  palace  life  was 
but  a  dull  one  for  a  young  man,  though  it  was  now 
more  diverse  and  gay  than  it  had  ever  been  in  Princess 
Beatrice's  youth.  It  held,  however,  no  excitement  and 
little  change,  except  that  of  scene.  The  people  had 
never  taken  to  Prince  Henry,  moved  more  by  national 
prejudice  than  any  other  sentiment,  for  he  interfered 
in  no  way  with  public  things.  His  chief  troubles 
seemed  to  be  social,  for  however  happy  he  might  be 
in  his  relations  with  the  Princess  and  Queen,  there 
were  members  of  that  large  family  who  were  equal 
to  giving  Bismarck  much  justification  for  his  lecture  on 
snobbery.  Early  in  the  'nineties  stories  were  told  of  the 
way  in  which  Prince  Henry  was  publicly  snubbed  by 
them,  stories  which  might  or  might  not  have  been  true ; 
the  following  is  gathered  from  Mr.  Thomas  Catling's 
book  of  Reminiscences,  and  may  be  regarded  as  true, 
as  it  was  related  to  him  by  an  official  who  was  present 
on  the  occasion. 

At  a  November  gth  dinner-party  given  by  the  Lord 
Mayor  at  the  Mansion  House  various  guests  were 
invited,  among  them  being  Prince  Henry.  The  seats 


NEARLY  AN  AUTOCRAT  417 

were  arranged  strictly  in  order  of  precedence,  and,  as 
usual,  a  plan  of  the  table  was  made.  Some  of  the 
guests  at  the  top  table,  thinking  themselves  rather 
crowded,  pushed  out  one  chair  and  took  their  seats. 
Prince  Henry,  who  arrived  after  this  had  been  done, 
referred  to  the  plan,  and  asked  his  relatives — by  mar- 
riage— to  move  that  he  might  take  his  place.  They 
all  sat  stolid,  no  one  would  move,  and  the  unfortunate 
guest  had  to  find  an  official  and  get  his  help.  Official 
authority  had  actually  to  be  used  to  make  the  offenders 
sit  more  closely  so  that  the  chair  could  be  replaced. 
Turning  round  before  he  sat  down,  Henry  said — 
'  Thank  you ;  they  are  very  cruel  to  me." 
He  must  have  found  it  a  pleasant  dinner  to  sit 
through  ! 

At  one  such  dinner  the  Duke  of  Cambridge,  who  was 
accustomed  to  use  loud  and  plain  speech,  caused  some 
consternation  by  looking  down  at  the  seat  reserved  for 
him  and  blurting  out — 

"  I'm  damned  if  I'm  going  to  sit  there."  And  it 
took  much  suavity  and  explanation  to  induce  him  at 
last  to  take  the  chair  assigned  him. 

Henry,  somewhat  weary  of  his  aimless  existence,  and 
more  than  weary  of  the  way  in  which  he  had  to  regard 
his  position,  at  last  determined  to  make  a  bid  for  per- 
sonal honour.  We  were  then  engaged  in  the  second 
Ashanti  war,  which  incidentally  brought  another  large 
slice  of  territory  under  British  rule,  and  he  volunteered 
to  go  with  Sir  Francis  Scott's  expedition  to  Coomassie 
in  1895.  The  suggestion  horrified  the  Queen,  who  felt 
that  he  supplied  much  of  the  youth  and  brightness 


£  E 


418    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

which  now  surrounded  her,  and  she  felt  that  she  could 
not  spare  him.  But  he  wanted  at  least  to  prove  him- 
self as  a  soldier,  and  Princess  Beatrice  saw  with  him 
how  much  more  bearable  successful  action  of  the  sort 
might  make  his  life.  No  one  realized  that  he  had  had 
no  training,  that  he  went  from  the  soft  life  of  a  palace 
to  the  hardships  of  long  marches  in  an  unknown 
climate,  and  that  his  habits  had  unfitted  him  for  any- 
thing of  the  kind.  When  the  expedition  landed  he 
shared  in  the  labours  and  fatigues  of  those  with  whom 
he  marched,  having  nearly  reached  Coomassie  when  he 
was  struck  down  by  fever,  and  being  promptly  sent 
back  to  the  coast,  died  on  H.M.S.  Blond  on  the  way 
home  on  January  19,  1896. 

If  he  had  been  personally  but  a  shadow  to  the  people, 
his  death  made  them  realize  the  grief  of  his  wife  and 
the  Queen,  and  sympathy  was  felt  for  them  all  through 
the  country.  Victoria  responded  with  one  of  her 
public  letters,  expressed  so  simply  that  very  pity 
strengthened  the  protecting  love  which  her  subjects 
had  again  begun  to  feel  for  her — 

'  This  new  sorrow  is  overwhelming,  and  to  me  in  a 
double  sense,  for  I  lose  a  dearly  loved  and  helpful  son, 
whose  presence  was  like  a  bright  sunbeam  in  my  home ; 
and  my  dear  daughter  loses  a  noble,  devoted  husband, 
to  whom  she  was  united  by  the  closest  affection.  To 
witness  the  blighted  happiness  of  the  daughter  who 
has  never  left  me  and  has  comforted  and  helped  me  is 
hard  to  bear." 

Four  years  earlier  the  Queen  had  suffered  severest 
grief  at  the  death  of  the  heir  presumptive,  the  Prince 


419 

of  Wales's  eldest  son,  Albert  Victor,  the  Duke  of 
Clarence.  In  December  1891  he  had  become  en- 
gaged to  his  cousin,  Princess  May,  the  daughter  of 
Princess  Mary  of  Teck,  and  had  almost  immediately 
caught  a  cold  which  resulted  in  influenza  and  pneu- 
monia. There  had  been  rumours  afloat  as  to  how  he 
had  been  living  not  wisely,  but  too  well,  and  few  were 
surprised  that  his  strength  would  not  stand  against 
severe  illness. 

It  was  commonly  said  that  the  affections  of  Princess 
May,  now  our  Queen,  had  from  the  first  been  given  to 
Albert  Victor's  brother  George,  but  that  grandmamma 
had  decreed  that  she  must  marry  the  heir  to  the  throne, 
and  what  grandmamma  decreed  in  matters  of  the  heart 
was  bound  to  become  fact.  True  or  not,  Princess  May 
was  engaged  to  Prince  George  within  a  year,  but  this 
was  not  immediately  made  public;  for,  though  the 
Queen  approved,  she  would  not  allow  any  announce- 
ment to  be  made  before  the  tomb  was  erected  over  the 
Duke  of  Clarence's  grave  ! — an  idea  of  etiquette  which 
must  raise  a  smile.  Her  Majesty  was  said  to  favour 
Prince  George  over  his  brother,  and  had  had  his  por- 
trait painted  by  Von  Angeli,  which  raised  the  inevitable 
question,  "Are  there  no  English  portrait  painters?  " 

The  marriage  of  the  Duke  of  York  and  Princess 
May  took  place  in  July  1893,  m  the  Chapel  Royal,  St. 
James's  Palace,  the  first  royal  wedding  held  in  London 
for  over  fifty  years ;  and  the  Queen  was  present,  not  as 
a  tearful  mourner  as  when  her  eldest  son  was  married, 
but  as  the  head  of  the  house  and  the  sympathetic 
grandmother. 


420    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

There  were  other  marriages  in  the  family  which 
pleased  her.  The  Grand  Duke  of  Hesse  had  died  in 
1889,  and  his  son  and  successor  married  a  cousin,  the 
daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh  and  Saxe-Coburg. 
To  this  wedding  of  her  two  grandchildren  went  the 
Queen,  her  last  visit  to  Coburg,  that  she  might  give  the 
young  people  her  blessing,  which  unfortunately  did  not 
avail  them  much,  for  they  soon  disagreed  and  were 
divorced  eight  years  later. 

Princess  Alex  of  Hesse,  said  to  be  lovely,  married 
the  new  Tsar  Nicholas  II  in  November  of  the  same 
year,  a  marriage  which  gave  Victoria  exquisite  plea- 
sure; for  though  she  could  never  lose  her  suspicions  of 
Russian  policy  in  the  East,  she  loved  to  be  allied  with 
that  great  power  by  personal  ties.  In  honour  of  the 
wedding  she  gave  a  state  banquet  at  Windsor,  and 
made  the  Tsar  colonel-in-chief  of  the  Second  Dra- 
goons, the  Royal  Scots  Greys. 

King  Death  was  busy  both  with  her  friends  and  foes 
during  these  ten  years,  causing  her  varying  degrees  of 
grief  or  regret.  For  the  death  of  her  brother-in-law, 
Duke  Ernst  of  Coburg,  in  1893,  she  probably  wept 
little,  for  the  quarrel  over  the  Greek  succession  had 
never  been  really  healed,  and  Ernst  was  not  morally 
all  she  could  wish.  They  had  not  met  for  years,  and 
his  loss  brought  her  the  pleasant  consequence  that  her 
second  son  inherited  the  country  of  his  father. 

For  the  death  of  Gladstone  she  also  could  have  felt 
no  emotion,  even  though  she  had  met  him  once  again 
and  had,  her  feelings  softened  by  time,  shown  him  an 
unwonted  kindliness.  It  was  at  Cimiez,  early  in  1897, 


NEARLY  AN  AUTOCRAT  421 

where  the  Gladstones  were  staying.  Princess  Louise 
was  also  on  a  visit  there,  and  invited  the  old  people  to  tea. 
They  were  shown  into  a  room,  to  quote  Gladstone's 
words,  "  tolerably  but  not  brilliantly  lighted,  much  of 
which  was  populated  by  a  copious  supply  of  Hanover- 
ian royalty.  The  Queen  was  in  the  inner  part  of  the 
room,  and  behind  her  stood  the  Prince  of  Wales  and 
the  Duke  of  Cambridge  .  .  .  The  Queen's  manner  did 
not  show  the  old  and  usual  vitality.  It  was  still,  but 
at  the  same  time  decidedly  kind,  such  as  I  had  not 
seen  it  for  a  good  while  before  my  final  resignation. 
She  gave  me  her  hand,  a  thing  which  is,  I  apprehend, 
rather  rare  with  men,  and  which  had  never  happened 
with  me  during  all  my  life,  though  that  life,  be  it 
remembered,  had  included  some  periods  of  rather 
decided  favour.  Catherine  sat  down  near  her,  and  I 
at  a  little  distance.  My  wife  spoke  freely  and  a  good 
deal  to  the  Queen,  but  the  answers  appeared  to  me 
rather  slight  ...  it  seemed  to  me  that  the  Queen's 
particular  faculty  and  habit  of  conversation  had  dis- 
appeared. It  was  a  faculty,  not  so  much  the  free  off- 
spring of  a  rich  and  powerful  mind,  as  the  fruit  of 
assiduous  care,  with  long  practice  and  much  oppor- 
tunity. After  ten  minutes  it  was  signified  to  us  that 
we  had  to  be  presented  to  all  the  other  royalties." 

Gladstone  died  in  May  1898,  and  Victoria  sent  a 
note  of  sympathy  to  Mrs.  Gladstone  in  which  she  was 
very  careful  to  express  no  personal  regret  at  the  event, 
and  no  recognition  of  the  services  he  had  done  her 
country.  The  nearest  approach  was,  "  My  thoughts 
are  much  with  you  to-day,  when  your  dear  husband  is 


422    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

laid  to  rest,"  and  "  I  shall  ever  gratefully  remember 
his  devotion  and  zeal  in  all  that  concerned  my  personal 
welfare  and  that  of  my  family." 

Among  the  pall-bearers  were  the  Prince  of  Wales 
and  Prince  George,  and  when  the  funeral  service  in 
Westminster  Abbey  was  over  the  former  did  one  of 
those  graceful  acts  which  made  him  beloved  by  all 
parties  and  all  classes.  Instead  of  at  once  leaving  the 
Abbey  he  walked  gravely  to  where  Mrs.  Gladstone 
was  seated,  took  her  hand  in  his  and  kissed  it.  A 
very  uncourtier-like  Radical  who  saw  the  scene  ex- 
claimed :  "  This  atones  for  a  good  deal.  I'll  never 
say  another  word  against  him  as  long  as  I  live." 

Such  things  as  these  help  to  explain  the  universal 
popularity  of  the  Prince  of  Wales;  they  also  explain 
the  great  difference  in  the  quality  of  the  national  feel- 
ing which  was  stirred  by  the  deaths  of  Queen  Victoria 
and  King  Edward.  The  Hon.  Adelaide  Drummond  1 
well  expressed  it  in  a  letter  to  Lady  Agatha  Russell, 
when  she  said,  "  I  think  this  loss"  (of  King  Edward) 
"is  felt  much  more  as  a  personal  one  than  that  of 
Queen  Victoria.  That  death  was  very  impressive,  but 
the  tender  feeling  was  not  uppermost  as  it  is  with  us 
now,  and  the  fact  seems  to  pervade  all  the  everyday 
doings  which  used  to  suggest  all  sorts  of  prosperity 
and  festivity." 

Princess  Mary  of  Teck,  that  vivacious  and  warm- 
hearted woman,  died  in  October  1897.  She  had  made 
herself  peculiarly  loved  by  the  people,  who  were  well 

1  The  Hon.  Adelaide  Drummond  :  Retrospect  and  Memoir. 
By  Basil  Champneys. 


NEARLY  AN  AUTOCRAT  423 

aware  of  her  good  deeds  and  her  reputation  as  an 
appreciator  of  humour,  whether  merely  good  humour 
or  that  form  which  approximates  to  wit.  Every  one 
is  drawn  to  one  who  can  laugh  or  cause  laughter  in 
others,  and  her  ready  laugh  and  gift  of  happy  repartee 
added  just  that  touch  of  pride  in  her  which  made  us 
feel  a  personal  touch  of  kinship.  One  of  the  stories 
so  often  told  may  bear  repetition.  Seated  at  dinner 
one  evening  between  Canon  Teignmouth  Shore  and 
another  canon,  the  former  asked  if  she  did  not  feel 
in  an  alarming  position  with— 

"Canon  to  right  of  her, 
Canon  to  left  of  her,"  etc. 

"  Well,"  she  replied,  "  this  is  the  very  first  time  I 
have  been  classed  with  the  Light  Brigade." 

Her  husband  died  in  1900,  just  a  year  before  Vic- 
toria, being  buried  beneath  St.  George's  Chapel.  And 
that  year  the  Queen's  second  son,  Alfred  Duke  of 
Saxe-Coburg,  suddenly  developed  a  fatal  illness,  and 
left  the  little  country  he  had  so  lately  acquired  to  the 
boy  Duke  of  Albany.  Almost  at  the  same  time  Vic- 
toria first  learned  that  the  Empress  Frederick,  of  whom 
some  one  said  in  1893  that  she  looked  so  remarkably 
young  and  well  that  she  might  have  been  thought  to 
be  about  thirty,  was  stricken  with  the  mortal  disease 
which  had  killed  the  Emperor.  This  was  a  bitter 
grief,  but  her  daughter  outlived  her  for  six  months. 


CHAPTER   XXV 

THE    APOTHEOSIS    OF    QUEEN   VICTORIA 

"Come,  fill  the  Cup,  and  in  the  fire  of  Spring 
Your  Winter-garment  of  Repentance  fling  : 

The  Bird  of  Time  has  but  a  little  way 
To  flutter — and  the  Bird  is  on  the  Wing." 

Edward  FitzGerald's  '  Rubaiyat  of  Omar  Khayyam' 

"  From  many  lands  we  come ; 

From  North,  from  South,  from  East,  from  West,  we  bring 
Our  fealty  unforced.   .   .   ." — Geoffrey  Junior. 

ALMOST  every  year  Queen  Victoria  went  abroad, 
generally  to  the  south  of  France,  though  Italy  was 
the  chosen  country  on  three  occasions,  and  in  1889 
she  paid  a  visit  to  San  Sebastian  in  Spain.  Mentone 
had  been  a  favourite  with  her,  which  was  not  far  from 
San  Remo,  where  Edward  Lear,  who  had  once  taught 
her  drawing,  had  a  villa.  He  was  much  troubled  by 
rumours  that  her  Majesty  intended  to  pay  him  a  visit. 

'*  T'other  day,"  he  wrote  in  his  well-known  facetious 
style,  "  over  a  hundred  owly  fools  came  up  and  stood 
all  about  my  gate  for  more  than  an  hour !  but  on  find- 
ing that  no  Queen  came  went  away  gnashing  their  hair 
and  tearing  their  teeth.  I  hope  if  her  Majesty  does 
come  I  shall  be  told  of  the  future  event  before  it  does 
come  to  pass,  as  it  would  not  be  pretty  to  be  caught 
in  old  slippers  and  shirt  sleeves.  I  dislike  contact 

with  royalty,  as  you  know;  being  a  dirty  landscape 

424 


APOTHEOSIS  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA     425 

painter,  apt  only  to  speak  his  thoughts  and  not  to  con- 
ceal them.  The  other  day  when  some  one  said,  '  Why 
do  you  keep  your  garden  locked  ? '  said  I, '  To  keep  out 
beastly  German  bands  and  odious  wandering  Germans 
in  general.'  Says  my  friend,  '  If  the  Queen  comes  to 
your  gallery  you  had  better  not  say  that  sort  of  thing.' 
Says  I,  '  I  won't,  if  I  can  help  it.' " 1 

Lord  Spencer,  who  was  with  the  Queen  at  Mentone, 
called  to  see  him,  and  Lear  commented  with  glee  upon 
the  outrageously  ridiculous  reports  which  were  spread 
about  the  Queen's  going  to  see  his  pictures.  "  Among 
the  most  absurd  was  one  that  old  George  had  been 
busy  for  two  days  and  two  nights  making  immense 
quantities  of  macaroon  cakes ;  for,  said  the  Sanramesi, 
1  It  is  known  that  the  Queen  of  England  eats  macaroon 
cakes  continually,  and  also  insists  on  her  suite  doing 
the  same.  And  there  is  no  one  at  San  Remo  who  can 
make  macaroon  cakes  except  Signor  Giorgio  Cocali 
(Lear's  cook).  I  told  George  of  this,  who  laughed,  a 
rare  act  on  his  part ;  and  said,  '  To  begin  with,  I  don't 
even  know  what  a  macaroon  cake  is  like,  and  never 
saw  one,  to  my  knowledge."  2 

At  the  various  places  which  the  Queen  visited  a 
mass  of  legends  arose  about  the  things  she  did,  which 
might  or  might  not  have  been  true.  Her  Indian  and 
Scotch  attendants,  with  their  remarkable  clothes, 
caused  crowds  to  gather,  especially  in  such  large  cities 
as  Florence;  and  children  found  a  never  wearying 

1  Lear  was  keenly  annoyed  at  a  new  hotel  built  by  Germans, 
which  overlooked  and  spoilt  his  garden. 

2  Later  Letters  of  Edward  Lear.     Edited  by  Lady  Strachey. 


426    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

pleasure  in  stealing  round  to  watch  them.  Once  her 
Majesty  told  an  Indian  to  give  a  cake  to  one  little 
creature,  but  at  his  awesome  approach  the  whole  group 
of  babes  fled  in  screaming  terror,  drawing  hearty 
laughter  from  the  Queen. 

It  was  her  custom  to  drive  about  the  grounds  of  the 
house  in  which  she  was  staying  in  a  donkey-chair  in 
the  morning  and  take  a  long  drive  in  her  landau  in 
the  afternoon.  When  at  Nice  in  1897  sne  often  passed 
on  the  hill  road  an  old  beggar,  sitting  in  a  rough  little 
wooden  cart,  drawn  by  two  dogs,  to  whom  she  generally 
gave  a  coin.  One  morning  the  old  man  whipped  up 
his  dogs  and  proceeded  to  race  the  Queen's  carriage 
down  the  hill.  For  a  while  his  dogs  kept  bravely 
abreast,  but  of  course  soon  had  to  give  up  the  contest, 
and  her  Majesty  was  sufficiently  diverted  to  send  some 
one  back  to  him  with  a  second  douceur. 

At  times  her  hotel  surroundings  were  scarcely 
majestic,  though  the  hotel  proprietor  may  have  been 
very  proud  of  them,  and  Lord  Ronald  Gower,  in  his 
Old  Diaries,  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  her  in  homely 
surroundings  at  Aix-Les-Bains.  Commanded  to  dine 
with  her,  he  found  the  dining-room  so  small  that 
the  ten  people  at  the  table  quite  filled  it  up;  on  its 
walls  was  only  one  picture — a  Jubilee  portrait  of  her 
Majesty.  Could  that  have  been  intended  as  a  com- 
pliment, and  if  so,  how  dull  a  one  !  The  reception-room, 
in  which  local  magnates  were  to  make  their  bows  before 
royalty,  was  lit  only  by  a  few  candles,  and  the  dinner 
guests  made  desperate  but  futile  efforts  to  induce  the 
gas  chandelier  to  add  to  the  illumination,  until  the 


APOTHEOSIS  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA    427 

Queen,  fearing  an  accident,  begged  them  to  desist. 
That  the  reception  might  be  in  good  style  the  middle 
of  the  room  had  been  cleared  of  furniture,  and  seem- 
ingly the  sides  too,  for  when  more  candles  and  a  lamp 
had  been  secured  there  was  no  place  upon  which  they 
could  be  stood.  To  add  a  touch  of  colour,  some  one 
seized  some  vases  of  flowers — artificial,  there  being 
none  others  at  hand — and  brought  them  in,  and  was 
met  by  the  same  trouble,  being  at  last  obliged  to  group 
them  on  the  one  vacant  spot  which  had  been  found 
for  the  lamp.  It  all  sounds  very  curious  when  one 
remembers  the  particularity  of  the  Queen  at  home,  the 
way  in  which  she  liked  people  to  appear  as  if  by  magic 
at  the  moment  at  which  she  expressed  a  wish  for  them, 
and  her  absolute  intolerance  of  any  hitch  whatever  in 
the  service  around  her.  But  perhaps  on  this  particular 
evening  all  her  attendants  had  a  holiday. 

At  Nice,  in  1897, tne  conditions  were  much  the  same 
while  she  was  staying  at  "  the  hideous  Hotel  Regina," 
the  drawing-room  walls  of  which  were  covered  with 
red  paper  and  hung  with  bad  paintings  lent  by  a 
picture  dealer;  while  the  dining-room  was  disfigured 
by  a  vulgar  glaring  paper  and  a  life-sized  copy 
of  the  coronation  picture  of  George  III  and  Queen 
Charlotte. 

A  matter  which  much  exercised  the  minds  of  the 
inhabitants  of  these  towns  was  the  way  in  which  the 
Queen  of  England  dressed,  for,  like  most  of  her 
country-people  of  that  day,  she  thought  that  any  old 
clothes  were  good  enough  for  travelling,  and  she  did 
not  compliment  the  Florentines  or  Nicians  by  any 


428    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

effort  after  regality.  A  broad-brimmed  straw  hat,  a 
shawl  and  a  black  skirt  which  had  seen  much  service, 
such  as  she  wore  in  the  grounds  of  Osborne  or 
Windsor,  are  said  to  have  become  familiar  in  the  towns 
of  her  holiday  making,  and  were  the  subject  of  many 
jokes  among  our  southern  friends  as  well  as  in  Eng- 
land. A  writer  of  a  magazine  article  tells  how  once 
a  new  stableman  at  Windsor  saw  a  little  old  woman 
examining  the  horses  one  day,  and  called  out — 

"  Hello !  no  one  is  allowed  in  here  when  the  Queen 
is  about !  "  upon  which  the  straw  hat,  pointed  shawl 
and  black  skirt  turned  round  sharply,  and  the  man's 
jaw  dropped  as  he  recognized  the  visitor. 

Victoria's  1893  visit  to  Florence  found,  for  some 
reason,  a  large  number  of  commentators,  who  give 
many  little  interesting  pictures  of  her  doings.  It  has 
not  generally  been  known  that  the  precautions  taken 
on  these  foreign  journeys  were  in  some  ways  more 
elaborate  than  even  those  across  England,  and  it  is  a 
little  wonderful  that  the  French  should  have  allowed 
their  through  service  to  be  disarranged  on  her  account. 
But  the  Queen,  like  all  sovereigns,  feared  assassination 
and  accident,  and  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  authorities 
in  France  would  have  done  anything  rather  than  have 
suffered  any  ill  thing  to  happen  to  her  in  their  country. 
Thus,  when  she  went  on  this  journey  to  Florence,  all 
the  way  there  from  Cherbourg  the  lines  were  cleared, 
so  that  for  two  hours  no  other  train  or  portion  of  a 
train  ran  in  front  of  hers. 

On  several  occasions  King  Humbert  and  his  Queen 
had  visited  her  when  she  was  abroad,  and  this  year  it 


APOTHEOSIS  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA    429 

was  rumoured  that  she  intended  to  return  their  calls, 
but  the  visit  was  opposed  by  the  Vatican.  It  was 
said,  too,  that  feeling  in  England  was  against  it,  so 
far  as  the  intention  was  known,  for  Rome — terrible 
fact ! — was  the  home  of  Roman  Catholicism  !  There 
is  no  bigotry  in  the  world  like  that  of  the  English 
Evangelican  when  thinking  of  Romanism.  The 
peasants  of  Cimiez  firmly  believed,  though,  that  in  her 
heart  Victoria  was  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  had  to  go 
abroad  to  be  shriven  in  secret. 

She  was  particularly  keen  to  see  the  miraculous 
picture  of  the  Annunciation,  which  was  always  carefully 
hidden  under  a  curtain  behind  the  altar  of  the  Church 
of  the  Annunciation  in  Florence,  and  the  privilege  of 
seeing  which  was  rarely  granted.  The  difficulties  in 
her  way  added  zest  to  the  visit  when  the  permission 
came,  and  she  was  wheeled  into  the  church  in  her 
chair  by  her  Indian  attendants.  They  were  all  grouped 
before  the  picture,  candles  were  lit,  prayers  were  said 
and  much  genuflexion  made,  and  at  last  the  great 
moment  came  when  most  solemnly  the  curtain  was 
withdrawn  from  what  the  priests  said  was  a  picture 
drawn  by  heavenly  hands.  The  Queen  looked  and 
looked,  then  turned  to  Ronald  Gower,  whispering — 
"  Can  you  see  anything,  Ronald  ?  for  I  cannot." 
He  replied  that  he  could  only  see  a  glitter  of  jewels, 
for  all  that  was  visible  was  a  blurred  female  profile 
beneath  a  crown  of  incrusted  gems.  The  Queen  must 
have  felt  some  inward  amusement  when  the  young 
monk  near  her  said  with  bated  breath,  that  "  Michael 
Angelo  had  remarked  that  he  thought  he  knew  some- 


thing  of  painting,  and  he  was  convinced  that  no  mortal 
hand  could  have  painted  the  work !  " 

Old  age  crept  gently  upon  Victoria.  By  1890  she 
never  walked  without  a  stick,  and  it  was  evident  that 
movement  was  uncomfortable ;  two  or  three  years  later 
she  would  enter  a  room  leaning  heavily  upon  the  arm 
of  an  Indian  and  using  the  stick  with  her  other  hand ; 
then  she  was  wheeled  about  the  castle  in  a  chair.  By 
1898  her  sight  was  failing,  for  cataract  had  appeared, 
and  she  could  not  easily  read  her  letters,  though  this 
was  kept  as  secret  as  possible,  and  dispatch  boxes  were 
sent  her  as  usual.  She  kept  up  as  long  as  she  could 
her  open-air  life,  and  one  reads  of  her  in  1893  sitting 
in  the  garden  several  hours  on  a  March  day  going 
through  business  papers,  she  being  then  nearly  seventy- 
five  years  old.  Almost  up  to  the  end,  too,  she  would 
go,  when  at  Windsor,  from  the  castle  to  White  Lodge, 
a  tea-house  at  Frogmore,  before  breakfast,  and,  after 
having  a  cup  of  coffee,  attend  the  service  there  and 
then  return.  It  was  at  this  place  she  would  occupy 
a  summer-house  and  work  on  dispatches,  with  her 
secretaries  around  her. 

Age  seemed  to  bring  her  youthful  tastes  back,  and 
there  was  no  longer  any  need  to  beg  her  to  go  to  a 
theatre,  for  she  was  quite  ready  to  command  the  theatre 
to  go  to  her.  Beginning  in  1890,  when  her  children 
organized  some  private  theatricals  and  tableaux  at 
Osborne,  her  liking  for  the  drama  revived.  So  she 
saw  The  Gondoliers,  Duse  in  La  Locandiera,  and 
commanded  Tree  to  act  The  Red  Lamp  at  Balmoral. 
She  also  turned  to  her  early  favourites,  and  had  // 


APOTHEOSIS  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA    431 

Trovatore,  Faust,  Carmen  and  Cavallena  Rusticana 
to  be  performed  before  her.  She  entered  with  great 
zest  into  the  fun  of  Tom  Taylor's  Helping  Hands  at 
Osborne,  and  eighteen  months  before  her  death  had 
Sanger's  Circus  at  Windsor  Castle,  with  150  horses, 
elephants,  camels  and  many  wild  birds  and  beasts.  To 
this  was  added  an  historical  procession,  some  of  the 
characters  being  taken  by  well-known  people,  and 
representing  St.  George,  Richard  III  and  even  Queen 
Elizabeth.  That  many  of  these  shows  were  for  the 
sake  of  Princess  Beatrice's  children  did  not  detract 
from  the  fact  that  she  too  enjoyed  them. 

She  no  longer  avoided  garden  parties  or  state  con- 
certs, and  when  Princess  Maude  married  Prince 
Charles  of  Norway  in  the  private  chapel  of  Bucking- 
ham Palace  in  1896  she  was  there,  and  gave  a 
garden  party  in  the  palace  gardens,  and  also  was 
present  at  a  state  concert  to  which  1500  guests  were 
invited,  the  royalties  sitting  in  crimson  and  gold  seats, 
strictly  in  order  of  precedence,  which,  being  so  at 
all  functions,  must  have  been  rather  boring,  as  the 
neighbours  were  always  the  same.  Princess  Maude 
received  .£4000  a  year  from  the  sum  allotted  to  the 
Prince  of  Wales  for  his  children,  and  the  Queen  must 
have  been  relieved  that  there  was  no  longer  any  need 
for  her  to  enter  into  a  new  struggle  on  that  point. 

In  1896  her  Majesty  entertained  the  Tsar  of  Russia 
with  the  Tsarina  and  their  infant  at  Balmoral,  insist- 
ing that  it  was  a  purely  family  visit,  a  statement  which 
her  ministers  duly  echoed,  though  every  one  knew 
that  negotiations  were  going  on  between  the  two 


sovereigns  concerning  the  disturbed  state  of  Europe 
and  the  system  of  murder  and  illimitable  taxation  of 
the   Armenians   by  the   Turks!      The   previous   year 
Rosebery  had  addressed  the   House  on  the  horrors 
which  had  been  perpetrated  there,  "while  the  Powers 
look  on  and  fly  little  diplomatic  kites/'     The  matter 
threatened  European  war,  and  a  little  later  culminated 
in  the  crisis  of  Crete.     It  was  rumoured  that  the  Tsar 
wished  to  associate  with  England  in  delivering  the 
Armenians  from  the  ghastly  thraldom  in  which  they 
lived,  a  rumour  which  had  little  association  with  fact, 
for  the  Tsar  refused  to  use  coercion  with  Turkey,  nor 
would  France  join  in,  and  England  felt  that  it  could 
not  act  alone.     Twenty-five  thousand  Armenians  were 
massacred  in  1896,  and  the  diplomatic  kites  continued 
to  fly  for  years !    But  the  notable  point  was  that,  with 
a  Conservative  leader  in  the  House,  for  in  1895  Salis- 
bury took  Rosebery's  place,  the  Queen  was  willing  to 
reverse  the  whole  of  her  Eastern  policy,  and  go  to 
the  aid  of  the  oppressed.     It  was,  however,  only  partly 
the  result  of  the  different  political  influence  with  which 
she  was  surrounded — there  was  also  another  and  more 
personal  reason.     Age  had,  as  has  been  several  times 
pointed  out,  brought  a  change  in  her  attitude ;  she  had 
at  last,  and  perhaps  unconsciously,  discarded  the  per- 
nicious attempt  to  rule  her  country  according  to  the 
remembered  wishes  of  Prince  Albert,  then  dead  for 
thirty-five  years;  she  was  at  last  governing  according 
to  the  advice  of  her  ministers  and  according  to  the 
natural,  humane  sentiments  of  her  own  mind ;  she  was 
at  last  herself  and  not  the  shadow  of  some  one  else. 


APOTHEOSIS  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA     433 

By  1897  the  Queen  had  completed  sixty  years  of 
reign,  and  the  well-named  "  Diamond  "  Jubilee  took 
place.  By  a  route  three  times  as  long  as  that  of  the 
Jubilee  of  ten  years  before,  she  drove  in  her  chariot  of 
state  to  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  preceded  and  followed 
by  Prime  Ministers  from  all  the  colonies,  delegates 
from  India  and  all  the  dependencies  and  representa- 
tives from  all  the  armed  forces  of  the  empire.  Here 
were  Mounted  Rifles  from  Victoria  and  New  South 
Wales,  from  the  Cape  and  Natal,  from  "  Our  Lady 
of  the  Snows."  Here  were  Hausas  from  the  Niger 
and  the  Gold  Coast,  coloured  men  from  the  West 
India  regiments,  Zaptiehs  from  Cyprus,  Chinamen 
from  Hong-Kong  and  Dyaks  from  British  North 
Borneo;  here  were  Englishmen,  Scotchmen,  Irishmen 
and  Welshmen,  Imperial  Service  troops  sent  by  the 
native  princes  of  India,  and  a  detachment  of  Sikhs. 
Said  a  writer  in  Figaro,  "  Rome  is  equalled  if  not 
surpassed  by  the  Power  which,  in  Canada,  Australia, 
India  and  the  China  seas,  in  Egypt,  Central  and 
Southern  Africa,  in  the  Atlantic  and  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean, rules  peoples  and  governs  in  their  interests." 

In  the  midst  of  this  great  and  gorgeous  procession, 
in  a  golden  coach  drawn  by  eight  cream-coloured 
horses,  who  marched  proudly  under  their  load  of 
golden  harness,  champing  their  gilded  bits,  their  blue 
reins  held  by  grooms  whose  scarlet  coats  were  en- 
crusted with  gold  and  insignia  of  service,  in  this 
magnificence  came  a  little  old  woman  of  seventy-nine, 
clothed  in  garments  which  gave  the  appearance  of  rich 
white  lace  figured  with  black,  her  face  beaming,  and 


F  F 


434    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

bowing  her  acknowledgments  from  right  to  left  for 
four  hours. 

But  was  she  merely  a  little  old  woman?  No,  she 
was  an  idol,  a  symbol,  the  symbol  of  Imperialism 
surrounded  by  the  proofs  of  her  great  cult.  Imperial- 
ism was  burning  like  a  flame  in  the  hearts  of  the 
English,  but  never  before  had  they  seen  with  their  own 
eyes  just  what  it  meant.  The  knowledge  burst  upon 
them  like  a  miracle;  they  saw,  they  understood,  and 
their  rending  shouts  meant  the  bending  of  the  knee 
to  the  power  which  was  centred  in  that  little  frail 
figure.  Through  roaring  crowds  she  passed,  the 
awakener  of  the  nation's  self-consciousness.  They 
shouted  in  acclaim  of  their  own  importance  as  well 
as  of  hers,  but  she  did  not  realize  the  cause  of  their 
emotion,  the  great  niche  in  which  they  had  placed  her. 
She  felt  it  to  be  personal. 

"  How  kind  they  are,  how  kind  they  are  to  me  !  " 
she  said  through  blinding  tears,  as  she  re-entered  the 
gates  of  Buckingham  Palace. 

And  if  they  had  been  challenged,  every  one  in  the 
crowd  would  have  declared  stoutly  that  their  homage 
was  personal,  as  it  was,  to  a  large  extent,  yet  without 
this  new  awakening  it  would  not  have  been  the 
same  homage.  At  last  the  bond  between  the  Queen 
and  her  English  subjects  was  complete,  riveted  by 
Imperialism. 

It  was  the  apotheosis  of  Queen  Victoria  ! 

Old  as  she  was,  the  day  brought  her  nothing  but 
happiness,  and  later  she  mused  and  dreamed  over  it 
and  constantly  returned  to  it  in  conversation.  Meet- 


ing  the  Bishop  of  Winchester  the  following  month, 
she  asked  him  from  what  point  he  had  seen  the  pro- 
cession, and  then  suddenly  remembering,  added,  with 
a  laugh — 

"  Oh,  you  were  on  the  steps  of  St.  Paul's.  I  was 
unfortunate — I  had  a  very  bad  place  and  saw  nothing." 

Six  days  after  the  great  procession  her  Majesty  gave 
a  garden  party  at  Buckingham  Palace,  driving  slowly 
with  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  in  an  open 
carriage  through  lanes  of  her  guests,  "  looking  most 
amiable  and  happy."  But  the  great  review  off  Spit- 
head,  by  which  the  Navy  took  part  in  the  Diamond 
Jubilee,  she  could  not  attend. 

There  were  some,  however,  who,  in  this  period  of 
rejoicing,  felt  aggrieved.  The  Queen  was  to  receive 
the  congratulations  of  the  Commons,  and  with  her 
martinet-like  precision,  which  allowed  nothing  for 
numbers,  appeared  on  the  very  moment,  remained  in 
the  room  but  a  few  minutes  and  went  away.  It  has 
several  times  been  pointed  out  that  the  carriage 
arrangements  at  any  royal  reception  were  atrocious, 
and  though  there  were  many  carriages,  the  number  was 
not  excessive.  However,  the  usual  muddle  occurred, 
and  by  the  time  most  of  the  visitors  were  allowed  to 
crawl  to  the  palace  door,  the  Queen  had  long  gone 
to  seek  her  afternoon  repose.  As  a  certain  General 
G.  C.  Bartley  wrote  to  The  Times,  somewhat  deri- 
sively, over  the  supposed  privileges  given  to  members 
as  regarded  the  Court  and  the  Jubilee,  he  read  of 
Colonists  and  foreigners  of  all  nations  going  to  royal 
reviews,  parties,  garden  and  otherwise,  but  as  a  member 


436    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

of  Parliament  he  had  not  received  a  single  invitation 
of  any  sort  to  identify  himself  with  the  festivities  or 
meetings;  "but  then  I  was  not  made  in  Germany  nor 
in  New  South  Wales,"  he  added.  "  I  attribute  all 
deficiencies  to  State  officials  who  manage  these  affairs, 
but  large  constituencies  are  apt  to  resent  such  treat- 
ment of  their  representatives  and  even  to  consider  it 
an  intentional  slight." 

But  this  was  a  new  Victoria,  and  instead  of  passing 
the  complaint  by  with  indifference,  she  at  once  had  an 
invitation  to  a  garden  party  issued  to  the  members  and 
their  wives. 

With  the  imperial  fervour  which  had  been  steadily 
growing  since  the  death  of  Beaconsfield,  there  was  a 
growing  sense  that  England  had  certain  scores  to  wipe 
off.  Afghanistan  had  been  settled  as  far  as  possible 
by  Gladstone  after  the  second  war,  but  it  was  felt 
necessary  to  come  to  some  definite  agreement  with 
Russia  about  boundaries,  a  matter  which  was  fortun- 
ately brought  to  a  conclusion  with  nothing  more  serious 
than  a  war  of  words. 

Through  European  machinations  the  Sudan  still 
remained  in  unrest.  So  far  the  policy  initiated  by  the 
G.  O.  M.  had  been  maintained  by  his  successors,  but 
it  was  felt  by  1897  that  the  time  had  arrived  for  making 
a  great  effort  to  settle  the  country.  So  British  and 
Egyptian  troops  were  sent  out  under  Lord  Kitchener, 
and  the  battle  of  Omdurman,  in  September  1898, 
restored  to  Egypt  the  greater  part  of  the  territory  it 
had  once  possessed,  which  caused  the  Queen  intense 
satisfaction.  It  was,  however,  not  placed  in  the  same 


APOTHEOSIS  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA     437 

way  again  in  the  power  of  the  Turk,  and  England  has 
had  since  to  maintain  a  great  army  there,  both  military 
and  civil;  in  fact,  England  has  practically  added 
Egypt  and  the  Sudan  to  her  list  of  dependencies. 

From  1897  to  l%99  one  frontier  war  succeeded 
another  in  India,  brought  about  by  fear,  defiance  and 
patriotism  on  the  part  of  the  tribesmen  and  by  a 
mixture  of  self-defence  and  aggression  on  our  side. 
So  we  went  on  expanding  with  a  firm  conviction  that 
we  were  conferring  a  blessing  on  the  world  by  so  doing, 
and  that  if  they  would  only  realize  it  the  black  men, 
the  yellow  and  the  brown  would  be  much  happier  in 
subjection  than  left  to  their  own  freedom.  It  was  the 
heyday  of  the  missionary  who  saw  evil  in  every  religion 
but  his  own,  and  went  about  preaching  of  that  evil 
and  of  the  religious  blessings  which  would  accrue  to 
the  coloured  men  under  British  rule;  incidentally  he 
was  also  the  pioneer  after  whom  all  the  sins  of 
civilization  were  introduced  into  every  quarter  of  the 
globe.  However,  it  all  jumped  with  Imperialism,  and 
we  were  content  to  stigmatize  these  little  people  who 
were  fighting  for  the  continued  possession  of  their 
independence  as  wicked  rebels,  horrible  barbarians  and 
treacherous  enemies. 

As  to  Africa,  Majuba  Hill  still  rankled  and,  though 
the  pacifists  kept  clear  of  war  there  as  long  as  possible, 
there  was  ample  occasion  for  it  on  both  sides.  The 
position  of  the  Boers  has  been  explained  earlier.  The 
Uitlanders  said,  on  their  side,  "We  are  the  majority 
of  the  inhabitants  here,  we  make  the  wealth  of  the 
country,  you  tax  us  beyond  all  necessity,  you  will  not 


438    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

let  us  educate  our  children,  you  keep  us  under  the  heel 
of  your  police;  above  all,  you  give  us  no  political 
rights."  "  Let  us  live  in  peace  in  our  country,"  said 
the  Boers.  "  I  insist  upon  dragging  wealth  out  of  the 
bowels  of  your  earth,"  replied  the  Uitlander.  How 
could  such  divergent  interests  be  reconciled?  Of 
course,  there  had  to  be  war. 

A  great  outcry  was  raised  in  1899  against  the  start- 
ing of  this  war,  for  even  by  then  the  Jingo  fever  was 
beginning  to  abate,  but  there  were  sinister  circum- 
stances underlying  it,  known  only  to  some  of  those  in 
authority  and  some  of  those  on  the  spot.  The  Kaiser 
had  never  visited  England  since  his  famous  telegram 
to  Kruger,  and  the  Kaiser  was  still  hoping  to  make 
himself  master,  by  hook  or  by  crook,  of  a  broad  band 
across  Africa,  from  east  to  west,  which  should 
effectually  and  for  ever  divide  the  British  possessions 
in  the  north  from  those  in  the  south.  His  dream  was 
Africa  for  Germany,  for  having  once  secured  this  band 
he  would  continue,  he  hoped,  to  broaden  it  until  the 
continent  was  all  his. 

In  March  1899  the  Uitlanders  sent  direct  to  Queen 
Victoria  a  petition,  signed  by  21,000  British  out  there, 
setting  forth  their  heavy  grievances,  and  by  then  the 
suspicion  arose  that  Kruger  was  preparing  for  war. 
To  the  Cabinet  the  practical  choice  lay  between  the 
gradual  submission  of  all  South  Africa  to  a  Boer 
farmer  of  sordid  habits  and  peculatory  instincts  or  a 
fight  to  a  finish.  There  could  be  no  doubt  as  to  what 
the  choice  should  be. 

The  fight  began  in  October,  and  the  next  month 


APOTHEOSIS  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA    439 

Kaiser  William,  anxious  to  lay  his  hand  on  his  heart 
and  say  "  This  is  not  my  game  !  "  came  to  visit  the 
Queen  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  with  his  Kaiserin. 
This  visit,  of  course,  in  the  usual  ostrich  fashion  of  the 
Court,  which  wished  to  hide  its  activity  under  the  sands 
of  innocence,  was  announced  to  have  no  relation  what- 
ever to  South  African  affairs,  to  be  a  purely  family 
visit ;  and  to  support  this  the  historians  tell  us  that  the 
notorious  Kaiser-telegram  to  Kruger  was  really  quite 
innocent  and  free  from  inimical  intent.  But  how  are 
we  to  believe  the  smooth  speakers? 

From  the  commencement  of  her  widowhood  the 
Queen's  interest  in  her  army  had  been  yearly  increas- 
ing, and  when  war  began  it  was  never  out  of  her 
thoughts.  But  though  she  did  what  she  could,  it  was 
impossible  that  she  should  again  harry  the  War  Office 
as  she  had  done  in  the  past.  The  conditions  were 
different,  the  Government  was  now  Conservative  and 
not  Liberal,  and  so  could  do  with  impunity  what  the 
other  would  have  been  forbidden  to  think ;  her  energies 
were  lessening,  and  her  sight  was  so  affected  that  she 
could  no  longer  read  the  reports  and  dispatches  which 
were  sent  for.  So  she  knitted  woollen  comforters  and 
caps,  feeling  great  vexation  when  her  work  was  appro- 
priated by  officers  instead  of  being  given  to  the  men. 
At  Christmas  she  broke  through  long  habit,  and  re- 
mained for  the  third  time  at  Windsor  rather  than  go 
to  Osborne,  that  she  might  be  nearer  the  centre  of 
news,  and  she  sent  chocolate  to  the  soldiers  at  the  front 
at  New  Year. 

But  now  that  she  was   near  her  life's   end  there 


440    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

remained  one  section  of  her  countryfolk  whom  she  had 
never  forgiven,  against  whom  she  had  harboured 
distrust  all  her  reign,  adding  suspicion,  resentment  and 
a  desire  for  reprisals  since  1862.  Those  people  lived 
in  Ireland.  She  had  never  pardoned  Dublin's  refusal 
to  put  up  a  statue  to  the  Prince  Consort,  the  attacks 
on  her  sons  or  the  national  desire  for  freedom  in  the 
administration  of  the  country's  affairs.  In  1899  she 
held  out  the  olive  branch  to  Bristol,  after  ignoring 
the  place  for  nearly  sixty  years;  would  she  die  and 
still  leave  Ireland  to  ban  her  memory? 

She  might  have  done  this  had  it  not  been  for  the 
Boer  War.  The  Irish  have  ever  been  fighters,  and 
England  has  ever  taken  advantage  in  her  need  of  this 
great  quality.  In  1900  the  bravery  of  the  Irish  troops 
made  a  great  impression  upon  her,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  in  the  general  mellowing  which  age  had  brought 
to  her  rigid  self-complacency  she  felt  some  regret, 
perhaps  even  remorse,  for  the  way  in  which  she  had 
treated  the  whole  nation.  She  had  persistently,  some- 
times heatedly,  refused  all  the  suggestions  of  her 
ministers  to  go  there  or,  as  was  repeatedly  urged  in 
earlier  years,  to  choose  a  residence  there;  she  would 
allow  no  son  of  hers  to  be  associated  with  the  island ; 
and  the  only  royal  link  between  England  and  Ireland 
for  thirty  years  had  been  made  by  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
who  had  three  times  visited  it,  being  accredited  by 
the  fearful  with  great  courage  when  he  went  there  in 
1885.  Yet  his  courage  was  not  put  to  the  test,  for  he 
met  kindness  and  loyalty  everywhere.  "  What  do  you 
want  ?  "  he  asked  of  a  man  with  a  bundle  of  walking- 


APOTHEOSIS  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA    441 

sticks,  who  tried  to  get  near  him  and  who  was  being 
chased  away  by  his  attendants. 

"  Nothing,  your  honour,  nothing,  but  to  ask  your 
honour  to  take  a  present  of  a  Tipperary  rifle,"  replied 
the  man,  offering  the  best  stick  he  had.  The  Prince 
took  it  with  genial  thanks,  sending  some  one  after  him 
with  a  sovereign.  When  some  ill-looking  people  in 
Dublin  were  cried  out  against  by  the  suite,  who  wanted 
them  sent  away,  the  Princess  turned  to  the  latter, 
saying,  "  Oh,  think  of  how  they  have  been  treated." 

When  the  Queen  went  to  Wales  in  1889,  the  Irish 
made  one  more  attempt  to  induce  her  to  visit  them, 
and  again  she  refused.  To  her  Ireland  was  nothing. 
She  needed  the  visible  proof  of  personal  service  on 
their  part,  for  she  had  no  imagination,  before  the 
hardness  of  her  heart  could  be  broken ;  and  this  proof 
was  given  now.  It  moved  her  to  a  feeling  of  grati- 
tude, and  she  sent  permission  to  her  Irish  soldiers  to 
wear  their  national  badge,  the  shamrock,  one  day  in 
the  year,  the  day  of  St.  Patrick;  and  then  in  April 
i goo  she  gave  up  her  long  journey  to  the  south  of 
France  for  the  short  one  to  Dublin.  She  did  it  grace- 
fully, telling  the  people  of  Dublin  that  she  came  to 
seek  change  and  rest  and  to  revive  her  memory  of  the 
warm-hearted  welcome  given  to  her,  her  husband  and 
children  in  earlier  days.  And  so  hearty  was  the  wel- 
come that  she  declared  that  the  Irish  really  loved  her, 
and  she  responded  to  the  wit  and  gaiety  of  the  crowd 
by  repeating — 

"  How  I  delight  in  the  Irish !  " 

For  three  weeks  she  remained  there,  driving  about, 


442     WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

attending  a  military  review,  an  assembly  of  50,000 
school  children,  and  entertaining  notabilities.  If  only 
she  had  done  this  from  time  to  time  during  the  forty 
years  of  neglect,  how  different  might  Irish  Victorian 
history  have  been. 

This  year,  old  and  feeble  as  she  was,  all  her  youthful 
enthusiasm  had  revived.  She  drove  through  London 
in  March,  that  she  might  show  her  deep  interest  in  her 
people  at  a  time  of  anxiety,  and  was  received  with 
the  greatest  enthusiasm,  love  and  veneration,  she 
looking  well  and  happy.  She  visited  Netley  and 
Woolwich  hospitals;  she  held  a  Drawing-room  at 
Buckingham  Palace,  her  last;  she  acted  personally  as 
sponsor  to  the  Duke  of  York's  third  child,  she  gave 
musical  entertainments  at  Windsor,  a  garden  party  at 
Buckingham  Palace,  and  a  state  banquet  to  the 
Khedive  of  Egypt.  She  received  at  Windsor  the 
delegates  from  Australia,  who  were  watching  their 
Commonwealth  Bill  through  the  Commons,  welcomed 
home  troops  from  the  war,  among  them  Canadian  and 
Colonial  detachments,  and  attended — her  last  appear- 
ance in  public — a  sale  of  needlework  by  Irish  ladies 
at  Windsor  Town  Hall.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  this  year  she  did  as  much  as  she  had  done  all 
together  in  the  first  ten  years  of  her  widowhood. 

Even  the  beloved  Scotland  was  allowed  to  suffer 
somewhat  from  her  war  anxiety,  for  Victoria's  thoughts 
were  fixed  on  South  Africa,  and  she  would  allow  no 
servants'  balls,  no  fetes,  no  joy-ringing  of  any  sort. 
Truly  a  revolution  had  taken  place  ! 

In  her  demeanour  the  old  jealousy  of  her  apparent 


APOTHEOSIS  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA    443 

dignity,  showing  itself  in  the  fear  of  any  liberty  being 
offered  her — a  most  curious  characteristic  in  one  so 
highly  placed  as  herself — had  entirely  disappeared. 
Perhaps  by  that  time  she  knew  that  dignity  could  cast 
out  fear.  I  have  been  told  by  a  dweller  near  the 
castle  that  once,  during  these  late  years,  he  saw  a 
happy  wedding  party,  meeting  the  Queen  in  her 
carriage,  throw  confetti  over  her,  and  she  responding 
with  a  jolly  laugh  of  amusement  and  restraining  her 
attendants  from  driving  the  party  away.  How  one 
regrets  that  spurious  dignity  which  kept  her  so  aloof 
so  long !  It  leads  to  the  thought  that  it  was  grafted 
upon  her  nature  by  the  German  training  given  her  in 
what  royalty  should  expect. 

The  article  in  The  Quarterly  Review  shows  how, 
before  she  was  so  old,  at  the  shadow  or  less  than  the 
shadow  of  freedom  she  would  freeze  and  probably  not 
thaw  again  through  a  dinner-party,  saying  the  next 
morning — 

"  I  chose  to  have  a  headache  last  night.  I  am  not 
quite  sure  that is  discreet." 

In  ordinary  family  life  a  headache  under  such 
circumstances  would  be  regarded  as  a  euphemistic  way 
of  explaining  sulkiness.  With  the  Queen  I  suppose  it 
was  regarded  as  a  calculated  method  of  ensuring 
a  rigid  line  of  behaviour  among  her  guests,  a  heavy 
penalty  for  those  guests  to  pay  for  dining  with  royalty  ! 

On  December  14,  1900,  Queen  Victoria  celebrated 
for  the  last  and  thirty-ninth  time  the  mourning  rites 
at  the  mausoleum  at  Frogmore,  and  four  days  later 
took  an  unconscious  farewell  of  Windsor  towers,  when 


444    WIDOWHOOD  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

she  started  for  Osborne.  She  had  largely  lost  her 
memory,  she  did  not  always  hear,  and  it  annoyed  her 
to  miss  a  word  in  conversation,  and  she  was  further 
depressed  by  her  anxieties  concerning  the  war.  At 
Osborne  one  more  trouble  fell  upon  her,  for  on 
Christmas  Day  her  valued  friend  and  attendant,  Lady 
Jane  Churchill,  was  found  dead  in  bed.  The  tearful 
Queen  wove  a  wreath  of  flowers  with  her  trembling  old 
hands  to  lay  on  the  bier. 

Yet  on  the  second  of  January  she  received  Lord 
Roberts,  and  talked  a  little  with  him,  but  it  was  a 
supreme  effort;  when  Joseph  Chamberlain  went  to  her 
on  the  loth  she  could  scarcely  speak,  and  the  inter- 
view lasted  only  two  or  three  minutes.  On  the  i5th 
she  drove  out  for  the  last  time,  her  companion  being 
the  Dowager  Duchess  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,  and 
after  the  igth  she  did  not  speak  again.  Two  days 
later  the  Kaiser  arrived  at  Osborne,  and  the  next  day 
she  died,  with  him  and  five  of  her  children  round  her. 

Of  the  funeral  there  is  little  need  to  write.  It  was 
military,  according  to  her  desires,  and  the  Alberta 
carried  her  over  the  Solent  between  lines  of  thunder- 
ing battleships.  From  Victoria  to  Paddington  soldiers 
guarded  the  roads  two  deep  and  shoulder  to  shoulder, 
and  artillery  escorted  the  gun-carriage  upon  which  her 
body  lay.  The  King,  the  German  Emperor,  the  Duke 
of  Connaught,  the  kings  of  Greece  and  Portugal,  and 
representatives  from  all  the  royal  families  of  Europe 
followed,  to  see  her  placed  in  the  spot  where  her 
husband  had  lain  for  nearly  forty  years. 

It  was  the  end  of  a  woman  of  great  sincerity.     If 


APOTHEOSIS  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA    445 

she  made  many  mistakes,  alienating  in  turn  different 
sections  of  her  people,  two  things  must  be  remembered. 
One  is  that  in  her  age  for  a  short  space  she  brought 
them  all  under  her  influence;  and  another  that  she 
was  born  in  1818,  and  had  helped  to  drag  England  out 
of  the  disgusting  quagmire  of  immorality  in  which  the 
people  were  sunk  from  the  time  of  the  Stuarts  till  the 
end  of  the  Georges.  She  was  the  link  between  then 
and  now,  and  a  link  cannot  be  the  crown  and  comple- 
tion of  a  chain.  She  did  a  great  deal  more  for  the 
reconstruction  of  English  habits  than  could  ever  have 
been  expected  from  a  member  of  the  Guelph  family. 
Her  chief  weakness  lay  in  the  rigidity  of  her  will. 
And  yet  this — because  of  the  length  of  her  life — 
became  at  last  the  chief  cause  of  the  claim  made  by  her 
adulators  that  she  was  great.  By  this  rigidity  she 
brought  disasters  upon  herself,  and  yet  at  last,  by  its 
continued  exercise,  she  hypnotized  the  people  into 
believing  that  she  must  be  right.  Without  putting 
it  into  words,  the  majority  agreed  that  she  ruled  by 
Right  Divine. 

She  was  also,  under  Beaconsfield,  one  of  the  chief 
influences  in  enlarging  her  empire.  Had  she  had 
unrestricted  liberty  in  this  matter  she  would  inevitably 
have  brought  disaster  upon  her  country,  for  in  this,  as 
well  as  in  domestic  policy,  we  may  go  too  fast.  The 
sane  road  is  the  middle  road,  and  the  glory  and  safety 
of  England  depended  more  upon  her  changing  ministers 
than  upon  her. 


INDEX 


ABDUL  Aziz,  Sultan  of  Turkey,  94 
a' Beckett,  Arthur,  quoted  356 
Adelaide,  Princess  of  Hohenlohe- 

Langenburg,  61 

,  Queen,  102 

Adolphus,  Prince  of  Schaumberg- 

Lippe,  383 
"  Adullamites,"  115 
Ainger,  Canon,  153 
Albany,  Duchess  of,  262,  350 

,  Duke  of.  See  Leopold,  Prince. 

Albert  Edward,    Prince  of  Wales. 

See  Edward  VII. 

— ,  Prince  Consort,  3,  5,  7,  15  et 

seq.,  48,  56,  65,  70,   75,  82,   87, 

100,  170-1,   174,   225,  232,  292, 

293.  3°4,  3.07.  312,  320,  349.  368 

Memorial,  72 

Victor,     Prince,     64,     348, 

389-90,  419 

Alexander  of  Hesse,  298,  308,  420 
II,  Tsar  of  Russia,  93,  200, 

231,  232,  273 
-  Tsarevitch,  194,  197 

of  Wurtemburg,  63 

Alexandra,  Queen,  25,  28,  51,  64, 

74,  91,  102,  117,  148  et  seq.,  163, 

177-8,  199,  200,  216,  347 
Alexandrina  of  Prussia,  28,  31 
Alfred,    Prince.     See    Edinburgh, 

Duke  of. 

of  Saxe-Coburg,  404 

Alice,  Princess,  Grand  Duchess  of 

Hesse-Darmstadt,  20,  48,  51,  65, 

100,  141,  149,  180,  224 
Allingham,  William,  quoted  359 
Amelie,  Queen  of  France,  66,  68 
Annual  Register,  23 
Arabi  Pasha,  258,  262 
Argyll,  Duke  of,  158,  159 
Arthur,    Prince.     See    Connaught, 

Duke  of. 


Ashley,  Evelyn,  126 
Ashmead-Bartlett,  William,  312 
Atholl,  Duchess  of,  181 
Augusta,  Queen  of  Prussia,  46,  142, 

143, 37  r 

Augusta  Victoria,  German  Empress, 

300 
Austro-Prussian  War,  58 

Babington,  Mr.,  92 
Baker,  Valentine,  263 
Balfour,  A.  J.,  410 
Barrington,  Lady  Caroline,  223 
Battenberg,    Alexander,    King     of 

Bulgaria,    298,    299,    302,    350, 

379  et  seq. 
,  Henry,  Prince,  299,  302,  305 

et  seq.,  349,  351,  353,  416-18 
Louis,  Prince,  299,  301,  303, 

305,  351 

,  Princess,  298,  308 

-,  Princess  Henry.    See  Princess 


Beatrice. 

Beach,  Sir  Michael  Hicks,  227 

Beaconsfield,  Lady  (Mrs.  Disraeli), 
107,  190 

,  Lord.  See  Disraeli,  Ben- 
jamin. 

Beatrice,  Princess  Henry  of  Bat- 
tenberg, 48,  64,  233,  239,  244, 
279,  287,  301  et  seq.,  309,  332, 
345,  416-18 

Beresford,  Lord  Charles,  252 

Bessborough,  Lord,  155 

Biddulph,  Sir  Thomas,  85 

Bigelow,  Pulteney,  quoted  398 

Bigge,  Sir  Arthur,  85 

Bismarck,  Prince,  quoted  15,  43, 
45,  46  et  seq.,  58,  64,  68,  quoted 
130,  137,  138,  140,  141,  143,  144, 
215,  242,  270,  276,  300,  365,  367, 
371  et  seq.,  376  et  seq.,  397,  398 


447 


448 


INDEX 


Blackie,  Professor,  359 

Blegg,  groom  to  Prince  of  Wales, 
164 

Bradlaugh,  Charles,  159,  190 

Bradley,  Dean,  128 

Breadalbane,  Lord,  358 

Bright,  John,  115,  121,  126 

Brooks,  Shirley,  quoted  70,  132 

Brougham,  Lord,  127,  170 

Brown,  Dr.,  of  Windsor,  64 

,  George,  306,  357 

,  John,  senior,  279 

,  John,  100  et  seq.,  159,  166  et 

seq.,  174,  176,  180,  181,  217,  278, 
281  et  seq.,  285  et  seq.,  289,  306, 

3°9>  329.  369,  371 
Browning,  Robert,  317,  348 
Bruce,  Lady  Augusta.     See  Lady 

Augusta  Stanley. 
Brunow,  Baron,  45 
Bucher,  Herr,  271,  378 
Bulgarian  Atrocities,  227 
Burdett-Coutts,  Baroness,  312,  355 
Burke,  Thomas  Henry,  275 
Busch,  Moritz,  quoted  15,  140  note, 

27L  377-8,  381-2 
Byng,  Colonel,  279 

Cairns,  Lord,  129 

Cambridge,  Duchess  of,  321,  361 

,  George,  Duke  of,  1 1,  132,  134, 

146,259,413-15,421 

,  Mary,  Princess.     See  Teck. 

Candlish,  Dr.,  73 
Canning,  Lady,  173 

,  Lord,  7 

Card  well.  Viscount,  133  et  seq. 
Carey,  Lieutenant,  239,  261. 
Carlingford,  Lord,  297 
Carlyle,  Jane  Welsh,  quoted  25 

,  Thomas,  235,  278,311,  317-18 

Carnarvon,  Lord,  234 

Catling,     Thomas,     quoted     275, 

416-7 
Cavendish,  Frederick,  Lady,  275 

,  Lord,  275 

Chamberlain,  Right  Hon.  Joseph, 

250,333.338,385-6,415 
Chapman,  George,  quoted 41 
Charles,  Prince  of  Norway,  431 
Charlotte,  Empress  of  Mexico,  69 
Chelmsford,  Lord,  129 
Chesterfield,  Lord,  164 
Chevalley,  Abel,  59,  quoted  342 


Childers,  Right  Hon.  Hugh,  133-4, 

251  et  seq.,  258 

Christian  IX,  King  of  Denmark,  29 
,  Prince  of  Schleswig-Holstein- 

Sonderburg-Augustenburg,  61  et 

seq.,  303 
,  Princess,  48,  60,  62,  65,  90, 

102,  163,  180 
Churchill,  Lady  Jane,  444 

,  Lord  Randolph,  324 

Clark,  Somers,  quoted  360,  303 
Clarke,  Francis,  174 
Clayden,  Philip,  192 
Cobb,  Frances  Power,  315 
Colenso,  Dr.,  127 
Conference  of  Berlin,  235 
Connaught,  Arthur,  Duke   of,   1 1, 

38,  117-18,  130,  147,  159,  193, 

240, 247, 259, 282, 404-5,  413-14 
,  Louise  Margaret,  Duchess  of, 

240 
Conway,  Moncure  D.,  quoted  91, 

"8,  237 

Cortazzo,  Oreste,  374 
Costello,  Fenian,  117 
Cowell,  Sir  John,  100,  283,  316 
Cromer,  Lord,  262-3,  271 
Crown  Prince.    See  Frederick,  Em- 
peror. 
Crown    Princess.     See   Frederick, 

Empress. 
Cumberland,  Duke  of,  405 

Daily  News,  216,  228 

De  Quincey,  Thomas,  quoted  342 

Derby,  Lord,  I4th  Earl,  52,  54-5, 
114,  127,  234 

,  Lord,  1 5th  Earl,  365 

Dicey,  Sir  Edward,  18 

Dickens,  Charles,  317 

Dilke,  Sir  Charles,  162,  158,  169, 
189,  250 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  Lord  Beacons- 
field,  quoted  3,  45,  55-6,  85, 
106  et  seq.,  115,  118-19,  I25, 
127,  129,  134,  160,  188  et  seq., 
214  et  seq.,  227,  233  et  seq., 
239-40,  241-3,  246  et  seq.,  250, 
277.  312,  315 

Dixie,  Lady  Florence,  284 

Drummond,  Hon.  Adelaide,  422 

Dudley,  Lord,  94 

Duff,  Right  Hon.  Sir  E.  M.  Grant, 
quoted  109,  134,  145 


INDEX 


Dufferin,  Lord,  262-3. 
Dunckley  H.,  245 

Edinburgh,  Alfred,  Duke  of,  II, 
26,  44,  48,  90,  117,  118.  147,  193, 

197,  403 

,  Marie,  Duchess  of,  \yjetseq., 

219,  305 

Edward  VII,  n,  14.  15  et  seq., 
28  et  seq.,  51,  53,  64,  67,  70,  72, 
74,  87,  102,  117,  123,  131,  147  et 
seq.,  163  et  seq.,  177,  178,  189, 
194,  199,  200,  215,  229.  337,  344, 
346,  349.  370,  377-8,  391-2,  396, 
410,  421,  422,  440-1 

Edward  of  Saxe-Weimar,  Prince, 

304 

Edwards,  Sir  Fleet  wood,  85 
Ely,  Marchioness  of,  13,  175,  178, 

279,  285 
Ernest  II,  Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg- 

Gotha.  10,  27-8,  47,  51,  56,  142, 

403,  420 

Esher,  Viscount,  241,  255 
Eugenie,  Empress,  145 
Eulenburg,  Count  Philip,  44 

Faucit,  Helena.    See  Martin,  Lady. 
Faviani,  General,  383 
Fawcett.  Prof.,  156-7,  169 
Feodore,     Princess,     Duchess    of 

Hohenlohe-Langenburg,  61,  223, 

299 

Fife,  Duke  of,  389 
Fitzclarence.  Lord  Adolphus,  206 
Fitz  Gerald,  Edward,  quoted  424 
Fitzroy,  Lord  Charles,  167 
Foley,  J.  H-,  76 
Foulon,  Marquis  de,  322,  334 
Francis  Joseph,  Emperor  of  Austria, 

48,  54 

Franco- Prussian  War,  132  et  seq. 
Frankfort  Conference,  46  et  seq. 
Frederica  of    Hanover,    Princess, 

262,  296-8,  304 
Frederick     Charles,     of     Prussia, 

Prince,  240 

Frederick,  Duke  of  Schleswig- Hoi- 
stein  Sonderburg-Augustenburg, 

50-1,  61 
,  Emperor,  41,   51,    141,  361, 

364,  367,  369  et  seq.,  371  et  seq., 

374-5,  381 

.  Empress,  31,  41,  44,  46,  51, 

G  C 


quoted  60,  65,  141-3,  154,  318, 
347,  375  *  *9  .  381-3,  397,  412, 
423 

Frederick  Leopold,  Princess,  4°3~4 
,  William  IV,  King  of  Prussia, 

41 

French,  Sir  John,  137 
Frere,  Sir  Bartle,  238,  254 
Frogmore,  mausoleum  at,  72 
Fullerton,  Commander,  206 
Furniss,  Harry,  322,  402 

Geffcken,  Dr.,  376 

George  III,  136 

V,  65,  311,419,422 

,  King  of  Greece,  28 

,  King  of  Hanover,  59,  297 

Gibbs,  Frederick,  18 

Gladstone,  Right  Hon.  W.  E., 
quoted  3,  12,  57,  75,  85,  95,  106 
et  seq.,  114,  115,  119,  126,  128, 
133-7,  155,  157,  160,  197,  222, 
229-30,  234,  238-9,  246-51,  256 
etseq.,  262,  267,  269,  271,  275-7, 

294,  307,  315-16,  324,  326-7,  329 

et  seq.,  338  et  seq.,  348-9,  408  et 

seq-,  420-2 

,  Mrs.,  235,  240,  421-2 

Glassalt  Shiel,  125 

Gleichen,  Count,  304,  308 

Gloucester,  Duchess  of,  quoted  147 

Glyn,  George,  327 

Gordon,  General  Charles  G-,  quoted 

246,  264-72 

,  Sir  Henry,  270 

,  Miss,  269-70 

Gower,  Lord   Ronald  Sutherland- 

Leveson,  38,  167,  quoted  187,  227, 

242,  426,  429 
Grant,  royal  servant,  178 
Granville,  Lord,  50,  54,  140  note, 

155,  188,  249,  257 
Green,  J.  R.,  quoted  165 
Greenwood,  Frederick,  217 
Greville,  Charles,  320 

,  Henry,  34 

Grey,  Hon.  Charles,  General,   18 

84,  86,  181 
Grote,  George,  317 

Halifax,  Lord,  137 
Halld,  Sir  Charles,  77 
Hamilton,  George,  241 
Harcourt,  Sir  William,  343 


450 


INDEX 


Harding,  General,  166 
Harrington,  Lord,  249,  255-6,  269, 

330,  333 
Helena,    Princess.     See   Christian, 

Princess. 

Helene  of  Waldeck-Pyrmont,  247 
Helps,  Miss  Alice,  83 
Helps,  Sir  Arthur,  84,  86,  87,   178, 

312,  321,  358 

Herbert,  Auberon,  157,  169 
Her  Majesty's  Dolls,  322 
Herschell,  Lord,  316 
Heywood,  E.  S.,  206,  210,  211,  212 
Hicks  Pasha,  263 
Hinzpeter,  Herr,  397 
Hohenlohe,  Prince,  27 
Holland,  Queen  of,  93,  138 
Hornet,  The,  187,  198,  237 
Humbert,  King  of  Italy,  93,  428 
Hunt,  Ward,  126 

Ingelow,  Jean,  316 
Inverness,  Duchess  of,  223 

Jameson,  Dr.,  400 
Jebb,  Sir  Joshua,  34 
Jenner,  Sir  William,  285,  287 
Jerrold,  Douglas,  quoted  311 
Jordan,  Dorothy,  206 

Kalomine,  Countess,  303 
Kent,  Duke  of,  369 

,  Mrs.,  369 

Khedive  of  Egypt,  93,  130,  217 
Kitchener,  Lord,  436 
Kruger,  Paul,  398  et  seq. 

Labouchere,  Henry,  M.P.,  248,  390 

Lavradio,  Count,  39 

Lawson,  Sir  Wilfred,  87 

Lear,  Edward,  quoted  424-5 

Le  Breton,  Madam,  145 

Lee,  Sir  Sidney,  quoted  287,  329 

Leiningen,   Prince,    27,   206,    211, 

304 

Leopold,  King  of  Belgium,  8,  14, 
27-8,  31,  49,  66,  68,  105,  142, 

221 

,  Prince,  Duke  of  Albany,  II, 

38,  48,  60,  123,  147,  193,  247, 

294,  405,  423 
Lincoln,  Presiaent,  69 
Lind,  Jenny,  38 
Lindsay,  Patricia,  370 


Lohlein,  valet   to  Prince  Consort, 

217,  282 

Lome,  Marquis  of,  153,  158,  200 
Losinger,  Mile.,  383 
Louis,    Grand     Duke    of     Hesse- 
Darmstadt,  25,  51,  63,  95,  141, 

303,  36i 
Louise,  Princess,  Duchess  of  Fife, 

350,  389-90 
,     Princess,     Marchioness    of 

Lome,   65,    147,    153,  154,    156, 

X63,  177-8,  201,  262 
Lowe,  Robert,  221 
Lucy,     Sir    H.    W.,    quoted    225, 

quoted  393-4 
Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  317 
Lytton,  Lord,  222,  238 

MacCarthy,  Justin,  222 
Macdonald,  General,  252 
MacDowell,  Patrick,  99 
Mackenzie,  Sir   Morell,  374,  376, 

38i 

Maclean,  Robert,  274 

Macleod,  Dr.   Norman,    in,    139, 
223 

Mahdi,  The,  263  et  seq. 

Malmesbury,  Lord,  13,  35,  52,  127 

Manchester  Guardian,  232 

Marlborough  House,  30 

Martin,  Lady,  82,  388 

,  Sir  Theodore,  82,  86,  96,  232, 

312,  388 

Mary,  Queen,  419 

Maude,  Princess,  Queen  of   Nor- 
way, 431 

Maximilian,  Emperor  of  Mexico,  69 

Maye,  Sergeant  William,  279 

Melbourne,  Lord,  4,  5,  292 

Methuen,  Lord,  285 

Metternich,  Prince,  17 

Montgomery,  Alfred,  281 

Mordaunt,  Lady,  157 
— ,  Sir  Charles,  150 

Morgan,  Matt,  105 

Morley,  John,  325,  390-1 

Napoleon  1 1 1, 68, 93,  1 24, 1 37  et  seq., 

146 

Neele,  G.  P.,  102,  168,  174,  358 
Neild,  John  Camden,  392 
Nicholas  II,  420 
Noer,  Count  de.     See  Frederick  of 

Schleswig-Holstein. 


INDEX 


451 


O'Connor,  Fenian,  166 
O'Donoghue,  The,  M.P.,  176 
O'Farrell,  a  Fenian,  117 
Oranmore,  Lord,  157 
O'Sullivan,  Mayor  of  Cork,  118 
Ott,  Monsieur,  chef  to  Queen  Vic- 
toria, 44 
Otto,  King  of  Greece,  27 

Pakington,  Sir  John,  134 
Pall  Mall  Gazette,  \  56 
Palmerston,  Lady,  39 

— ,  Lord,   13,  27,  37,  50,  52,  55, 

58,  66,  93,  127,  133,  144 
Parnell,  Charles  S.,  248,  275,  326, 

333 

Paton,  Sir  Noel,  72 
Peel,  Misses,  206 

— ,  Sir  Robert,  157 
Phipps,  Sir  Charles,  13,  84 
Playfair,  Sir  Lyon,  18,  309,  quoted 

364 

Pollock,  Justice  Baron,  33 
Ponsonby,  General  Sir  Henry,  85, 

212,  256,  277,  279,  285,  290,  316, 

321,  324,  331,  335,  411 

— ,  Lady,  84 

Prince  Imperial,  The,  224,238,  261 
Punch,  quoted  15,  34,  54,  62,  80, 

100,  118,  180,  212,  311,  323 

Quarterly  Review,  The,  42,  84 

Rammingen,    Baron    Pawell   von, 
296-8 

Rawlinson,  Sir  Henry,  193 

Rayleigh,  Lord,  309 

Reardon,  M  P.,  124 

Reeve,  Henry,  320-1 

Reid,  Dr.,  285 

Reynolds's  Newspaper,  23 

Rhodes,  Cecil,  400,  402 

Richmond,  Duke  of,  121 

Roberts,  Lord,  255,  444 

Robins,  Rev.  Arthur,  355 

Rose,  A.  McGregor,  quoted  384 

Rosebery,  Lord,  413,  415,  432 

Rossa,  O'Donovan,  76 

Roxburgh,  Duchess  of,  298 

Royal  Horticultural  Gardens,  72 

Royal  Red  Cross,  order  of,  insti- 
tuted, 262 

Russell,  Sir  Edward,  quoted  183 
— ,  Hon.  G.  W.  E.,  241,  245 


Russell,  Lord  John,  50,  52,  65,  112- 

13,  127,  224 
,  Lord  Odo,  144,  236 

Salisbury,  Marquis  of.  93,  235,  237, 

242,  323-5,  327,  329  et  seq.,  384, 

406,  415 

Sandringham  House,  30 
Saxony,  King  of,  46 
Schleswig-Holstein,  50 
Schouvaloff,  Count,  197 
Scott,  Sir  Francis,  417 
Seton,  Mr.,  a  bootmaker,  67 
Shaftesbury,  Lord,  220 
Shah  of  Persia,  192  et  seq. 
Smith,  Sydney,  119,  quoted  407 
Spencer,  Lord,  425 
Standard,  The,  141 
Stanley,  Dean,  128,  278 

— ,     Lady    Augusta,     175,     223, 

317-18 

Stewart,  General,  325 
Stockmar,  Baron,  5,  16,  42,  66,  84, 

232,  312 

Stop- Gap  Government,  the,  331 
Sullivan,  A.  M.,  75 
Sunday  Times,  The,  103 
Sussex,  Duke  of,  223 

Tait,  Archbishop,  127,  278 
Taylor,  Peter,  M.P.,  157,  197 
Teck,  Duke  of,  63,  260,  423 
,  Mary,  Princess,  Duchess  of, 

38,  63,  66,  146,  216,  223,  422 
Tennyson,    Lord,    290,    311,    314, 

316-17,  348 

Times,  The,  21,  39,  169 
Tomahawk,  The,  103,  105,  122 
Tuckerman,  C.  K.,  quoted  194 

Vasili,  Count  Paul,  quoted 368 
Victoria  of  Hesse,  Princess.  301 
Victoria,  Queen :  retrospective,  I 
et  seq.  ;  and  Ernst  of  Saxe- 
Coburg,  10  ;  new  rule  of  life,  8  ; 
and  Palmerston,  13  ;  and  Prince 
of  Wales,  1 5  ;  and  marriage  of 
Princess  Alice,  26 ;  and  the 
Grecian  crown,  26 ;  and  marriage 
of  Prince  of  Wales,  28  ;  and 
Princess  Alexandra,  30 ;  drawing- 
rooms,  31  ;  at  wedding  of  Prince 
of  Wales,  38  ;  affection  for  Prus- 
sia, 41  et  seq.,  47  et  seq. ;  and 


452 


INDEX 


Bismarck,  43  ;  Denmark,  51  ;  her 
Cabinet,  52  ;  constitutional  sove- 
reign, 57  ;  and  Prince  Christian, 
60  ;  Albert  memorials,  70 ;  seclu- 
sion, 70  ;  sentimental  nature,  71  ; 
mausoleum,  72  ;  Craig  Lowrigan 
cairn,  73  ;  attacked  by  Dr.  Cand- 
lish,  73  ;  at  Aberdeen,  75  ;  anger 
against  Dublin,  76  ;  struggle  with 
grandson,  77  ;  state  of  mind,  77  ; 
rouses  public  resentment,  78 ; 
reception  to  diplomatists,  80 ; 
protest  against  public  demands, 
81 ;  her  work,  82  ;  mistaken  ideal, 
83  ;  secret  staff,  84  ;  literary 
work,  86  ;  Life  of  Prince  Con- 
sort, 86 ;  Leaves  from  her 
Journal,  86  ;  yearly  routine,  86  ; 
opens  Parliament,  90  ;  refusal  to 
invite  royal  visitors,  93  ;  bestows 
Garter  upon  Sultan,  95  ;  founda- 
tion stone  of  Albert  Hall,  96 ; 
love  of  Scotland,  96 ;  unpopu- 
larity, 97 ;  official  explanation 
of  seclusion,  98  ;  visits  Bucking- 
ham Palace,  holds  drawing-room, 
gives  garden  party,  98 

John  Brown,  100-4;  friendship 
for  Disraeli,  no;  dislike  for 
Gladstone,  1 10 ;  eulogism  of 
Dr.  Macleod,  in  ;  absorbed  in 
Austro-Prussian  war,  112  ;  goes 
to  Balmoral  during  political  crisis, 
113;  anger  at  resignation  of 
Cabinet,  113;  laughs  at  Fenian 
threats,  1 16 ;  distress  at  attempted 
assassination  of  son,  117;  Irish 
Church  Bill,  119,  128;  Disraeli 
throws  responsibility  upon,  120  ; 
flight  to  Scotland,  121  ;  menacing 
criticism  of,  122;  Regency  Bill 
suggested,  123  ;  health,  124  ;  goes 
to  Switzerland,  124;  receives 
John  Bright,  126  ;  and  A.  C.  Tait, 
127  ;  refuses  to  open  Parliament, 
128-9;  fiftieth  birthday,  129; 
Khedive  as  guest,  130 ;  opens 
Blackfriars  Bridge,  131  ;  head  of 
the  Army,  133  ;  signs  warrant 
against  purchase  of  commission, 
136;  feeling  against  Napoleon  III, 
139 ;  hatred  of  Bismarck  for,  142 ; 
unpopular  in  Germany,  144 ;  re- 
ceives Empress  Eugenie,  145;  and 


Napoleon  III,  146  ;  her  children, 
147  ;  distress  at  scandals  about 
Prince  of  Wales,  152  ;  Lome 
marriage,  154  ;  opens  Parliament, 
1 54  ;  her  use  of  public  money 
discussed  in  Parliament,  155  ; 
holds  Court,  157;  wedding  of 
Princess  Louise,  158  ;  resentment 
against  public  criticism,  159  ;  also 
against  Gladstone,  160:  neuralgia 
and  rheumatic  gout,  161  ;  attack 
by  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  162  ;  goes 
to  Sandringham,  163 ;  and  the 
illness  of  Prince  of  Wales,  164  ; 
threatened  by  O'Connor,  166  ; 
decorates  John  Brown,  167  ;  her 
income,  170;  simplicity  in  Scot- 
land, 172  ;  journeys  to  the  north, 
173;  nearly  an  accident,  176; 
dances  a  reel,  179  ;  thrown  out 
of  carriage,  180;  and  sightseers, 
181  ;  her  landed  property,  183  ; 
kindness  to  individuals,  185  ;  love 
of  dogs,  dislike  for  cats,  185  ; 
and  Prince  of  Wales's  debts,  1 89  ; 
rebukes  Gladstone,  190;  and 
Disraeli,  190 ;  meets  the  Shah, 
195;  meets  Grand  Duchess  Marie 
in  London,  198. 

Queen's  yacht  runs  down  the 
Mistletoe,  206  ;  tries  to  protect 
Leiningen,  209  ;  desire  for  speed, 
209 ;  letter  to  Royal  Yacht  Club, 
211  ;  bitter  criticism  of  it,  213  ; 
intercedes  against  Prussia's  war- 
like plans,  215  ;  sends  Prince  of 
Wales  to  India,  217  ;  Empress 
of  India,  218  ;  opens  wing  of 
London  Hospital,  220 ;  creates 
Disraeli  Lord  Beaconsfield,  222  ; 
goes  more  into  public,  223  ;  and 
Russia,  226 ;  Prince  Consort's 
influence,  227 ;  and  Bulgaria, 
230  ;  and  Gladstone,  230  ;  issues 
Crimean  volume  of  Life  of 
Prince  Consort,  231  ;  disgust 
with  Russian  success,  233  ; 
lunches  at  Hughenden,  233  ;  gives 
the  Garter  to  Lord  Beaconsfield, 
238  ;  and  Empress  Eugenie,  239 ; 
"  Dictatress  of  Europe,"  240  ; 
publicly  slights  the  Gladstones, 
240 ;  goes  to  Germany,  242  ; 
tribute  to  Disraeli,  243  ;  visits  his 


INDEX 


453 


grave,  244  ;  letters  from,  quoted 
246  ;  influence  upon,  of  Disraeli 
and  Gladstone,  246-7  ;  Glad- 
stone, 249-50,  258,  273,  276  ;  and 
the  Army,  250  et  seq.,  413  et  seq., 
439;  at  Edinburgh,  251;  and 
foreign  policy,  254;  and  with- 
drawal from  Afghanistan,  256; 
and  Turkey,  257;  and  nurses, 
262  ;  and  Egypt,  262-3,  267  ;  and 
General  Gordon,  269 ;  attempt 
on,  274 ;  threatened,  276 ;  and 
Court  mourning,  277 ;  loss  of 
friends,  278,  294 ;  at  funeral  of 
Sergeant  Maye,  279;  at  funeral 
of  John  Brown,  senior,  279;  and 
John  Brown,  281  et  seq. ;  precau- 
tions in  travelling,  283 ;  accident 
to,  284;  and  Lady  Florence 
Dixie,  284;  and  John  Brown's 
death,  285  et  seq.,  289  et  seq. ; 
rumours  as  to  mental  condition 
of,  289 ;  more  Leaves,  291,  quoted, 
296;  as  matchmaker,  296  etseq., 
380;  and  Frederica,  Princess  of 
Hanover,  296-8;  at  Baden- 
Baden,  299;  sojourns  abroad, 
299  et  seq. 

Snubs  Gladstone,  307  ;  love  of 
Stuarts,  308,  366;  her  Germanic 
ideals,  312;  foreign  policy,  313; 
and  Women's  Rights,  314;  and 
Mrs.  Gladstone,  315;  and  men 
of  letters,  317-18;  and  the 
position  of  women,  319;  and  the 
arts,  32 1 ;  Her  Majesty's  Dolls, 
322 ;  and  the  People's  Palace, 
254,  324;  offers  Gladstone  a 
peerage,  321 ;  neglect  of  Lon- 
don, 332 ;  over-carefulness  with 
money,  333-4,  359,  393~4;  self- 
absorption,  336;  anti-Liberal 
sympathies,  338,  357 ;  and  Ire- 
land, 339;  and  Jubilee,  342; 
reappearances  in  public,  343  ; 
opens  Exhibition  at  South  Ken- 
sington, 344 ;  at  Liverpool,  345  ; 
opens  Royal  Holloway  College, 
345 ;  at  Edinburgh,  345 ;  and 
Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales, 
346  et  seq. ;  dislike  of  tobacco, 
349;  and  the  Battenbergs,  350; 
and  theatrical  performances,  351, 
430-1 ;  at  Birmingham,  352 ;  love 


of  children,  352 ;  at  Wild  West 
Show,  353;  the  Jubilee  of,  354 
et  seq.\  learns  Hindustani,  356; 
visits  Lord  Salisbury,  366;  and 
William  II  of  Prussia,  377  etseq., 
395  ;  and  the -Conservatives,  384; 
the  Imperial  ideal,  385  ;  and  the 
Irish,  386-7  ;  renewed  activities, 
387;  at  Bristol,  387;  visit  to 
Wales,  388  ;  and  her  grand- 
children, 389-91 ;  her  Civil  List, 
392 ;  her  yachts,  394 ;  colonel  of 
German  dragoons,  395 ;  gives 
Germany  Heligoland,  396 ;  and 
the  Kaiser's  Kruger  telegram, 
401 ;  and  Cecil  Rhodes,  402  ;  her 
party  politics,  406  et  seq. ;  dis- 
missal of  Gladstone,  410-12; 
family  sorrows,  418-19;  journeys 
abroad,  424  et  seq. ;  travelling 
precautions,  428 ;  growing  old, 
430;  and  the  Diamond  Jubilee, 
433  et  seq. ;  and  the  Irish,  440 ; 
visit  to  Ireland,  441-2,  failing 
powers,  death  and  funeral,  444. 

Victoria  of  Prussia,  Princess,  302, 
351,  379etseg. 

,  Princess  of  Wales,  65 

Vitzthum,  Count,  54 

Von  Angeli,  321-2 

Von  Reuss,  Countess,  369 

Waddington,  Mme.,  282 

Wales,  Prince  of.    See  Edward  VII. 

— ,  Princess  of.     See  Alexandra, 

Queen. 

Warren,  Colonel,  Fenian,  1 1 7 
Watts,  G.  F.,  322 
Weekes,  Henry,  99 
Wellesley,  Dean,  241,  278 
Wellington,  ist  Duke  of,  5,  133 

,  Duke  of,  33 

Welsh,  Captain,  206,  210,  211 
West,  Sir  Algernon,  quoted  280,  406 

,  Hon.  M.,  279 

Westminster,  Duchess  of,  39,  243 
Wilberforce,  Bishop,  128,  129 
William  George  of  Denmark.     See 

George,  King  of  Greece. 
William  I, King  of  Prussia,  German 

Emperor,  28,  41-3,  46  et  seq.,  54, 

140-3,  149,  303,  371,  374,  38i 
II,  German  Emperor,  38,  76, 

259,    283,    300-2,   349,   367,   372 


454  INDEX 

el  seg.,  374    et  seq.,  382-3,  395       Winterhalter,  321 

etseq.,  438-9,  445  Wolseley,  Lord,  258,  271,  415 

William  IV,  3,  90,  206  Wood,  Sir  Evelyn,  263,  41  3 

Winchester,  Bishop  of,  435  Wyattville,  Sir  Jeffrey,  10 

.  Marquis  of,  155 

Windsor  Castle,  9  Young,  Albert,  276 


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